23/01/2012 | Session
The credentials of the Ukrainian delegation to the Assembly were challenged on procedural grounds on the opening day of the session in Strasbourg. Making the challenge on behalf of the EPP/CD group, Egidijus Vareikis (Lithuania) considered that three members of the Ukrainian delegation should not be seen as members of the opposition and therefore the political balance of the delegation was not respected.
23/01/2012 | Session
At the opening of its winter plenary session today, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) elected its Vice-Presidents. The seat for the Vice-President in respect of Spain remains vacant...
23/01/2012 | Session
“At the end you can always say that we have done not enough, but I can assure you that I did my best during my Presidency to strengthen the Parliamentary Assembly and its institutional role”, Mevlut Cavusoglu today at his last press conference in his capacity of President of the Assembly. Referring to the vote of the French Parliament Lower Chamber on the bill criminalizing the denial of the so-called ‘Armenian genocide’, Mr Cavusoglu said that in fact “France is criminalizing freedom of speech”, which goes against the Council of Europe values.
23/01/2012 | President
Jean-Claude Mignon, elected today as PACE President, will lay a wreath at the Strasbourg war memorial in Place de la République at 5.30 pm on Tuesday 24 January. The ceremony will be attended by the Director of the Private Office of the Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, representatives of Strasbourg City Council, the Conseil Général and the Regional Council, and the Chairpersons of the United Kingdom, Russian and German delegations to the PACE.
21/01/2012 | Election observation
A PACE post-election delegation, ending a two-day visit to Moscow, has welcomed widespread indications – from across the political spectrum – of the need for political change in Russia, and called for this change to be substantial and sustainable. It should not be a survival mechanism, the delegation said. The six-member delegation, visiting Moscow on 20 and 21 January, said that Russian voters, whatever their political views, were making increasingly clear their preference for elections that are conducted fairly, and called on the politicians to respond to this need as an urgent priority. Recent mass demonstrations throughout Russia had acted as a wake-up call, it pointed out.
20/01/2012 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“The whole region is facing decisions which call for considerable responsibility and risks which can be tackled only by courageous leadership. Pro-European leaders should demonstrate that they are prepared to take on responsibility”, PACE rapporteur on the situation in Kosovo*, Björn von Sydow (Sweden, SOC), said today at the end of a two day visit to Belgrade.
20/01/2012 | Session
The Danish delegation to the PACE today requested that a current affairs debate on “The state of democracy in Hungary” be held during the next part session (23-27 January 2012). This proposal, which will be submitted to the Bureau of the Assembly at its meeting on Monday 23 January at 8 am, will not be approved until the Assembly has adopted its final agenda at the opening of the session.
19/01/2012 | President
In learning yesterday that Giuseppe Vedovato had died at the age of 99, Mevlüt Cavusoglu, President of the PACE, paid tribute to the former President of the Assembly: “I was deeply saddened to hear that Giuseppe Vedovato had passed away. My thoughts are with his family at this difficult time. He was a fervent European and one of the greatest allies the Council of Europe has ever had in upholding its values. He was a member of our Assembly for 22 years and finally its President from 1972 to 1975, “the first Mediterranean President”, as he liked to call himself.
17/01/2012 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Björn von Sydow (Sweden, SOC), Chairperson of the Political Affairs Committee of the PACE will pay a fact-finding visit to Belgrade on 19-20 January, in the framework of the preparation of his report on the situation in Kosovo. During his visit, he is due to meet the Speaker of the Parliament Slavica Djukić Dejanović, Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković, First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Ivica Dačić, and Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić, as well as the Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Goran Bogdanović.
16/01/2012 | Election observation
Notwithstanding the government’s stated ambition to strengthen Kazakhstan’s democratic processes and conduct elections in line with international standards, yesterday’s early parliamentary vote still did not meet fundamental principles of democratic elections, international observers concluded in a statement issued today. The elections were well administered at the technical level.
16/01/2012 | Election observation
A seven-member delegation from PACE is to make a “post-electoral visit” to Russia on 20 and 21 January. The delegation – made up of one member from each of the Assembly’s five political groups as well as the two rapporteurs for the monitoring of Russia – will be visiting the country on the eve of the Assembly’s winter plenary session in Strasbourg (23-27 January), where a report on the observation of Russia’s parliamentary elections is due to be discussed.
13/01/2012 | Election observation
A PACE delegation led by Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC) will travel to Tunis on 16 and 17 January. The President of the Venice Commission – the Council of Europe's group of independent legal experts – will also join the delegation. The purpose of this visit is to assess the scope for strengthening PACE’s institutional relations with the new Constituent National Assembly and with other Tunisian institutions and partners, following the elections of 23 October 2011.