06/12/2011 | Prizes
The Council of Europe Museum Prize for 2012 has been awarded to the Rautenstrauch‐Joest‐Museum in Cologne (Germany) by PACE Committee on Culture, Science and Education. The Rautenstrauh‐Joest‐Museum is an anthropological museum of more than a century old, now in a high quality new building in Cologne, Germany.
05/12/2011 | Election observation
Despite the lack of a level playing field during the Russian State Duma elections, voters took advantage of their right to express their choice, the international observers concluded in a statement issued today. The observers noted that the preparations for the elections were technically well-administered across a vast territory, but were marked by a convergence of the state and the governing party, limited political competition and a lack of fairness.
05/12/2011 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“We in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe strongly believe that Kyoto should not be allowed to expire without a new regime to replace it. If a new regime cannot be agreed, then Kyoto must continue until this occurs,” Alan Meale (United Kingdom, SOC) warned at the Durban IPU panel on ‘creating a virtuous push and pull cycle for low carbon and renewable energy projects’.
02/12/2011 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
As part of the preparation of a report by François Rochebloine (France, EPP/CD), PACE's Committee on Culture will be holding on 6 December in Paris (9.30 a.m., Council of Europe Office, 55, Avenue Kléber) a hearing on issues of governance and ethics in the sports world. The questions of financial fair play and protecting young migrant footballers, as well as issues of power and internal politics inside sports bodies, will be addressed.
01/12/2011 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“The clock is ticking on the Kyoto Protocol. Unless agreement is reached at Durban, the global agreement on targets and actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions negotiated at Kyoto will almost certainly expire without any binding targets or actions agreed for the period 2012-20,” today warned Lord Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC), former rapporteur on climate change for the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe (PACE) and Kyoto Treaty signatory.
30/11/2011 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
“With 1971 boatpeople having perished in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach European soil from North Africa, the year 2011 sets a sad record as the deadliest year for boatpeople,” PACE rapporteur Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC) said at the end of a hearing on this issue, organised by PACE Migration Committee. “Never before the Mediterranean Sea has been as closely monitored as this year because of the war in Libya and still more boat people than ever perished or disappeared,” the rapporteur added.
30/11/2011 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
“The situation in Syria has become intolerable and requires action,” stressed today Christopher Chope (United Kingdom, EDG), Chair of PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population, at a meeting in Paris and “unreservedly condemned the crackdown and killings in Syria.” He called upon Council of Europe member states to take all the necessary steps to impose immediate sanctions on the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
30/11/2011 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE rapporteurs on Belarus, Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD), and on the death penalty, Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD) have expressed their dismay at the death sentence handed down today on Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalev by the Belarusian Supreme Court, which found them guilty of the fatal bombing in the Minsk Metro on 11 April 2011.
29/11/2011 | Monitoring
Lise Christoffersen (Norway, SOC) and Piotr Wach (Poland, EPP/CD), co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the honouring of Moldova’s obligations and commitments, started a fact-finding visit to Chisinau yesterday afternoon until 1 December. They will be especially interested in the current political situation, the reform of justice, the measures taken to combat corruption and organised crime.
29/11/2011 | Standing Committee
Rights, duties and responsibilities cannot be dissociated from each other, PACE has declared. Approving a report by Marie-Louise Bemelmans-Videc (Netherlands, EPP/CD) in Edinburgh, the Assembly’s Standing Committee said that duties were legal obligations, whereas responsibilities were moral ones. It spelled out a series of fundamental responsibilities of individuals, including the responsibility to protect human life, to respect the personal liberty of others, to respect the private life and the reputation of others, to acquire an education, to work, to perform civic obligations, and to act responsibly towards children, the elderly, the disabled and the environment.
29/11/2011 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
In a draft resolution adopted at a meeting in Paris today, the PACE Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs underlines the urgent need for independent and credible expert assessments in fields such as the environment, health, energy, finance or civil protection. “Findings vary in accordance with the source of funding,” the PACE rapporteur on this subject, Cezar Florin Preda (Romania, EPP/CD) stressed.
29/11/2011 | President
“Accountability in the management of public funds and transparency are the pillars of good governance and parliaments play a key role in ensuring that these principles are implemented,” today said PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in New-York, addressing a parliamentary hearing organised jointly by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the United Nations, on “Strengthening political accountability for a more peaceful and prosperous world”.