19/10/2011 | Prizes
The 2011 Europe Prize was awarded last Saturday to the French town of Landerneau in Brittany, in the presence of many local and regional officials, and a parliamentary delegation led by the Chairman of the PACE Sub-Committee on the Europe Prize Axel Fischer.
19/10/2011 | President
“We are outraged by the terrorist attacks in south-east Turkey, which have resulted in the deaths of at least 26 Turkish soldiers. We condemn in the strongest terms the authors of these horrendous acts, as well as yesterday’s attack on police officers", declared today Konstyantyn Gryshchenko, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, and Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, President of the Parliamentary Assembly.
18/10/2011 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu today welcomed the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas as “good news”. "It is a sign, at a difficult time for the peace process, that sustained negotiations are possible and more effective than the continuation of a stalemate between Palestinians and Israelis," he said. The release of soldier Gilad Shalit was one of the key issues the Assembly said it would follow when it granted the Palestinian National Council ‘Partner for democracy’ status on 4 October 2011.
18/10/2011 | President
“It is no longer acceptable to make excuses when it comes to ratification of the European Social Charter,” said PACE President Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking today at a ceremony in Strasbourg to mark the Charter’s 50th anniversary. “All human beings have basic rights, and these include health, employment and the right to be ‘free from want’,” he pointed out.
18/10/2011 | President
“A truly intercultural model of 'living together', which allows culturally different groups within society to interact, is the most effective response to intolerance, extremism and xenophobia - the worst evils our societies have to face today,” said the PACE President today, addressing the 21st Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. “As the Assembly and the Congress have stated on numerous occasions, dialogue, integration and interaction between different communities start at local level,” he said.
17/10/2011 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“Poverty is a barrier to the enjoyment of human rights, whether civil and political rights or social, economic and cultural rights,” Luca Volontè (Italy, EPP/CD), former PACE rapporteur on combating poverty said today, on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. “Poverty, which singles out the disabled, the elderly, unmarried mothers and many other categories, necessarily curtails the exercise of human rights for its victims,” he added.
14/10/2011 | Election observation
An eleven-member PACE delegation headed by Brian Binley (United Kingdom, EDG), will be in Bulgaria from 20-24 October 2011 to observe the presidential election, alongside observers from the OSCE. The members of the delegation will meet the election candidates (or their representatives), the Chairperson of the Central Electoral Commission, the Bulgarian delegation to the PACE and representatives of NGOs and the media, before deploying throughout the country to observe the conduct of the ballot on 23 October.
14/10/2011 | Election observation
A 20-member PACE delegation, headed by Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC) will go to Tunisia from 20 to 24 October to observe the election of a constituent National Assembly, alongside observers from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the European Union. The members of the delegation are due to meet the Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohamed Mouldi Kefi, the Minister of Education Taieb Baccouche, and the Minister of Equality Lilia Laabid as well as the representatives of various political parties.
14/10/2011 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu will make an official visit to Norway from 19 to 21 October. During his visit, he is due to meet the President of the Storting – Norwegian Parliament – Dag Terje Andersen and the leaders of political groups as well as the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide. He will hold an exchange of views with the members of the Storting Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence and with the Norwegian delegation to PACE.
14/10/2011 | Political Affairs and Democracy
In his speech at the Forum for the Future of Democracy, held in Limassol from 13 to 14 October, João Bosco Mota Amaral (Portugal, EPP/CD) welcomed the fact that “political apathy or citizens’ disinterest in institutionalised procedures of democracy has now given place to numerous movements of civil society, which have brought people to the streets and ‘woken up’ public or civic conscience.”
12/10/2011 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD), rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on abolition of the death penalty, expressed her dismay after a military court in the northern West Bank has sentenced a former member of the Presidential Guard to death.
11/10/2011 | Prizes
The French town of Landerneau (Brittany) will receive the 2011 Europe Prize at a ceremony on Saturday 15 October, which will bring together a large public and local personalities in the town’s concert hall, “The Family”. On this occasion, a delegation of parliamentarians, led by the Chairman of the PACE Sub-Committee on the Europe Prize, Axel Fischer (Germany, EPP/CD), will present the prize to Landerneau’s Mayor, Patrick Leclerc.