26/06/2012 | Session
Iceland’s Economic Affairs Minister Steingrímur Sigfússon told Parliamentary Assembly members that there is “an end to the tunnel” in the current economic crisis, because Iceland lived through it – and not with austerity alone.
26/06/2012 | Session
Edmond Haxhinasto, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Albania, Chairperson of the Committee of Ministers, recalled that one the top priorities of his country’s ongoing Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers is, under the motto “United in Diversity”, the promotion of tolerance, dialogue and mutual understanding.
26/06/2012 | Session
Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni (Italy) was elected today by the PACE as the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe by 133 votes to 117 for the other candidate, Gérard Stoudmann (Switzerland). She will take up office on 1 September 2012 for a period of three years, and replaces Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, whose term of office expires on 31 August, having performed this function since 1 September 2002.
26/06/2012 | Session
The Azerbaijani authorities should be invited to speedily solve the cases on a consolidated list of 89 alleged political prisoners by releasing or retrying them, according to PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. In a draft resolution approved today during a meeting on the fringe of PACE’s plenary session in Strasbourg, based on a report by Christoph Strässer (Germany, SOC), the committee noted that the issue of political prisoners was “still not resolved” in Azerbaijan.
25/06/2012 | Session
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which opened today in Strasbourg its Summer Session 2012, elected Olga Nachtmannova (SOC) Vice-President of the Assembly with respect to the Slovak Republic.
25/06/2012 | Session
“We must remain on our guard to make sure that all member states of our organisation respect our values and honour their undertakings in this time of crisis,” said PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon at the opening of the summer part-session...
25/06/2012 | Session
“The Council of Europe has always stood by Albania since the fall of Europe’s worst dictatorship,” declared Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha in his address to the PACE. He recalled the considerable distance covered by Albania over the two decades following the fall of its prevailing dictatorship...
25/06/2012 | Monitoring
PACE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Azerbaijan, Pedro Agramunt (Spain, EPP/CD) and Joseph Debono Grech (Malta, SOC), have welcomed the pardon by President Aliyev and release of nine of the eleven prisoners of conscience still detained since the March-April 2011 demonstrations in Baku.
22/06/2012 | Monitoring
At the end of a fact-finding visit to Turkey from 17 to 21 June 2012, PACE’s rapporteur for post-monitoring dialogue with Turkey Josette Durrieu (France, SOC) has urged the Turkish authorities to speed up the revision of the Penal Code and the anti-terror law in order to strengthen freedom of expression...
20/06/2012 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
On the occasion of World Refugee Day, Giacomo Santini (EPP/CD), President of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons, today made the following statement: “From time immemorial, conflicts throughout the world have forced people to flee from their countries in millions..."
19/06/2012 | News
Strasbourg, 19.06.2012 – A joint informal body of members of the European Parliament and Council of Europe parliamentarians has welcomed the prospect of talks resuming on EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Last week the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe...
15/06/2012 | Monitoring
Josette Durrieu (France, SOC), PACE rapporteur for post-monitoring dialogue with Turkey, will undertake a fact-finding visit to Ankara and Istanbul from 18 to 21 June 2012. Talks are planned with the President of the Republic and with the Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Justice, and Family and Social Policies of Turkey.