11/04/2011 | Monitoring
“I am convinced that Ukraine’s rightful place is in Europe, and welcome its willingness to live up to European ideals and standards,” said Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin (Sweden EPP/CD), PACE co-rapporteur for the monitoring of Ukraine, following a visit to Kyiv and Lviv. She welcomed the continuing efforts of the authorities to meet Ukraine’s commitments to the Council of Europe and to respond to Assembly recommendations. However, at the same time she also stressed that some recent developments gave rise to concern.
11/04/2011 | Session
The credentials of the national delegations to the PACE from Montenegro, San Marino and Serbia were approved today, on the opening day of the Assembly’s spring session, after all three submitted new delegations which include at least one woman Representative.
11/04/2011 | Session
At the end of a debate on the over-indebtedness of states and its consequences for democracy and for citizens, parliamentarians called on European governments to devise "graduated strategies for public debt stabilisation and subsequent reduction". At the same time, member states should ensure that they "contain the erosion in living standards and citizen’s socio-economic rights", by endeavouring to spread the effects of austerity measures fairly across the population and to spare vulnerable groups the weight of adjustments.
11/04/2011 | Session
Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland called on Delegates to the Assembly to play their part in the Council of Europe’s political reform to make the whole Organisation more politically relevant, effective and influential. He said that the Organisation was now quicker and more focused in its response to external and internal challenges facing Europe.
07/04/2011 | President
Adressing the World Forum on Intercultural dialogue in Baku, PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu today underlined that building the environment for successful intercultural dialogue is key to achieving Council of Europe goals. "But our work does not stop there. We must design and implement comprehensive national policies for promoting intercultural dialogue. In this area, the Council of Europe has a wealth of expertise to contribute,” he underlined, while emphasising the role of parliaments in this process.
07/04/2011 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has issued an urgent call for Roma to be given a stronger voice at local, national and international level. “The Roma are Europe’s largest minority, present in virtually every one of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states, yet their participation in public and political life is minimal,” the President pointed out, speaking on the eve of International Roma Day, 8 April.
07/04/2011 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The network of contact parliamentarians to stop sexual violence against children will be meeting for the second time in Strasbourg, on Wednesday 13 April. They will be looking at how to combat child pornography on the Internet. They will also have the opportunity to discover two new communication initiatives: a brochure and newsletter to be published in each Assembly part-session.
06/04/2011 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
On the occasion of World Health Day (7 April 2011), whose theme this year is action to combat antimicrobial resistance, Liliane Maury Pasquier (Switzerland, SOC), the Chair of the PACE's Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, has today called on WHO to “continue its action to counter antimicrobial resistance while being as thorough and transparent as possible in its approach to the selection of experts so as to ensure that future decisions by national governments are based on advice entirely devoid of any conflict of interest”...
04/04/2011 | Election observation
The observer delegation of the PACE welcomes the orderly organisation and conduct of the voting in the 3 April early Presidential election in Kazakhstan. Electoral officials conducted their work efficiently and, generally, demonstrated a high degree of professionalism. Polling stations observed were exemplarily well equipped for a good election, and the overall atmosphere was relaxed and business-like. The turnout was good, which testifies to public confidence in the process.
04/04/2011 | Monitoring
Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin (Sweden, EPP/CD), PACE co-rapporteur on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Ukraine, will undertake a fact-finding visit to that country from 5 to 8 April. In Kyiv, meetings are planned with the President of the Republic Viktor Yanukovych, the Speaker of Parliament Volodymyr Lytvyn, the Minister of Justice and Head of the working group in charge of the reform of electoral legislation Oleksandr Lavrynovytch, the Head of the Security Service Valery Horoshkovskyi, and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
01/04/2011 | Session
A debate on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue, on Tuesday 12 April, will be one of the highlights of the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which will take place in Strasbourg from 11 to 15 April 2011. Several prominent religious figures will take the floor, including Patriarch Daniel of Romania, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, Vatican, Professor Mehmet Görmez, Chairperson of the Presidency of Religious Affairs of Turkey, Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, Chief Rabbi of Russia, and Prelate Bernhard Felmberg, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany to the Federal Republic of Germany and the EU.
01/04/2011 | Session
PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu today expressed his distress after 27 irregular migrants were found off the coast of Tunisia, drowned in the Mediterranean. “Each death of a boat person is one too many”, he deplored. “The events this year in Tunisia and Egypt and now in Libya have brought about a new wave of desperate people, using desperate means to find a new life”, he said.