23/01/2012 | Session
Jean-Claude Mignon (EPP/CD) from France has just been elected PACE President. Taking over from Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (Turkey, EDG), he is the 26th President of the Assembly since 1949 and the first French person to hold this office in 23 years. “First and foremost, I want to make sure in my new position that the rule of law, respect for human rights and the promotion of democracy are not just empty words, and that we are moving forward in these areas, including beyond our borders, in particular by engaging with Europe’s neighbours who are moving down the path to democracy,” he said today.
23/01/2012 | Session
When adopting its final agenda at the opening of the Winter Session 2012, PACE decided to hold a current affairs debate on "The Russian Federation between elections," on Thursday 26. However, it decided not to follow the proposal of the Danish delegation to the PACE to hold a current affairs debate on "The situation of democracy in Hungary". Speeches by British Prime Minister David Cameron and Finnish President Tarja Halonen will be among the highlights of the session.
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 | Elections
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 | Elections
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.