10/09/2012 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“It becomes increasingly important to make sure that democratic institutions and processes can function well and that our commonly adopted rules are respected. One of our most important assets in difficult times is the confidence of citizens in the democratic process,” said Eero Heinäluoma, Speaker of the Finnish Parliament, in her speech at the opening of the meeting of the PACE Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy in Helsinki today.
07/09/2012 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE’s Social Affairs Committee has given its full backing to a European tax on financial transactions, urging that it should cover as many countries as possible – as a first step to a global tax – and should also be levied on derivatives trading and off-exchange transactions. The committee, adopting a draft resolution based on a report by Hermine Naghdalyan (Armenia, ALDE), also said ...
07/09/2012 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
“The latest sinking incidents – the terrible loss of life off the coast of Turkey yesterday, in which so many children died, and the news that some people are still missing after the incident off Lampedusa in the early hours of this morning – are a warning to Europe of what can happen when humanitarian tragedies are ignored, said Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC), who has investigated boat deaths in the Mediterranean for the PACE.
07/09/2012 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, which will meet on 10-11 September in Helsinki (Finland), will hold an exchange of views with the Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Erkki Tuomioja. The meeting will be opened by the Speaker of the Finnish Parliament, Eero Heinäluoma, and the Chairperson of the Finnish delegation to the PACE, Susanna Huovinen.
06/09/2012 | Election observation
A five-member PACE delegation led by Luca Volontè (Italy, EPP/CD), will carry out a pre-electoral mission to Tbilisi on 11-12 September 2012, ahead of the parliamentary elections in Georgia on 1 October 2012, to assess the electoral framework and campaign. The delegation is due to meet the President of the Republic, the Speaker of the Parliament and the Foreign Minister as well as representatives of the political parties running in the elections.
06/09/2012 | Monitoring
Pointing to “ongoing political bickering” in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the upcoming local elections, Karin S. Woldseth (Norway, EDG) and Egidijus Vareikis (Lithuania, EPP/CD), PACE co-rapporteurs monitoring the country, have said they are frankly doubtful that progress will be made on implementation of the Sejdić and Finci judgment, and the roadmap to a credible EU membership application.
06/09/2012 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
“The difficulty of striking a European consensus on the issue of ‘sects’ does not mean that we should drop the idea of establishing rules and policies at European level to protect minors against sectarian excesses,” said Rudy Salles (France, EPP/CD), rapporteur on the protection of minors against sectarian influence, speaking today at the opening of a hearing on this subject organised in Paris by PACE’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights.
05/09/2012 | Monitoring
The engagement and the mobilisation of more than 100,000 citizens following the December 2011 elections, the awakening of a very engaged civil society and the willingness of the authorities to hear the call for reforms have created in the Russian Federation “a momentum for change” and to realise this unique political potential, “Russian society needs concrete reforms”, PACE Monitoring Committee said at the end of its meeting in Paris.
05/09/2012 | President
"I join the international condemnation of the ‘glorification’ of the terrible crime which Mr Safarov has committed, and for which he has been condemned by a court in a Council of Europe member state," PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon said today. "His liberation is unacceptable, and I am extremely disappointed by the abusive use of a Council of Europe legal instrument in this affair."
03/09/2012 | Monitoring
PACE Monitoring Committee will be meeting in camera in Paris on 4 September 2012 to examine the report on honouring of obligations and commitments by the Russian Federation and adopt a draft resolution. In the document the co-rapporteurs, György Frunda (Romania, EPP/CD) and Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC), assess the political situation, the economic and social situation, external relations, the functioning of pluralist democracy, the rule of law, and human rights and fundamental freedoms.
31/08/2012 | Bureau
PACE Bureau will update the agenda for the next session and discuss the observation of the parliamentary elections in Georgia, Montenegro and Ukraine. Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice, will address members at the meeting.
29/08/2012 | President
PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon, and the co-rapporteurs for Ukraine, Mailis Reps (Estonia, ALDE) and Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin (Sweden, EPP/CD), expressed their deep disappointment with the Court of Cassation rejection of the appeal by Yulia Tymoshenko against her conviction to seven years in prison in the so-called gas case. “The Assembly has stated on several occasions that her conviction in the gas case amounts to the criminalisation of normal political decision-making...” they said.