07/02/2011 | President
PACE President, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, is to make an official visit to Moldova on 8-9 February. During his visit, he will meet the Acting President of the Republic and Speaker of Parliament Marian Lupu, Prime Minister Vlad Filat, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Iurie Leancă, as well as the different political forces represented in parliament.
07/02/2011 | President
PACE President, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, will conduct a working visit to the Republic of Tatarstan in the Russian Federation, on 11-12 February. Meetings are scheduled in particular with representatives of the authorities and with religious leaders.
03/02/2011 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
Mats Johansson (Sweden, EPP/CD) has been appointed as the Standing Rapporteur on Media Freedom of the PACE Committee on Culture, Science and Education. Mr Johansson, who replaces the late Andrew McIntosh (United Kingdom, SOC), has been a journalist for 40 years, as well as publisher and writer, and was the Political Editor of the leading Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet before entering parliament.
03/02/2011 | Monitoring
PACE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Albania, Jaakko Laakso (Finland, UEL) and Thomáš Jirsa (Czech Republic, EDG), have urged all parties to find a negotiated solution to the current political crisis in Albania, and to refrain from any action that could further escalate the already tense situation. “This crisis is doing lasting damage to Albania’s democratic institutions and is endangering the very stability of the country,” said the two co-rapporteurs.
03/02/2011 | Monitoring
Joseph Debono Grech (Malta, SOC) and Pedro Agramunt (Spain, EPP/CD), PACE co-rapporteurs on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Azerbaijan, have completed a three-day visit to the country (1-3 February 2011), during which they studied the current political situation following the elections and discussed the state of the Assembly’s monitoring procedure with the authorities, political parties and civil society.
01/02/2011 | President
"All forms of intolerance towards those considered 'different' are on the rise again. Ethnic, religious or cultural differences between people are being artificially exacerbated and manipulated in political discourse, to divert attention from the real problems and real solutions. Politicians and parties reverting to such discourse have now been democratically elected in many national parliaments," warned PACE President Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, speaking today in Auschwitz at a ceremony in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
28/01/2011 | Session
In a text adopted today PACE called on member states to ratify and implement the European Social Charter (1961 and revised in 1996), this being the anniversary year where both the 50 years since the original charter was agreed and the 15 years since its revision will be celebrated.
28/01/2011 | Session
Inequalities in access to health education, information and preventive care still exist, the Assembly warned today. The well educated part of the population enjoys easy access to the resources allocated whilst disadvantaged groups experience greater difficulties. Following the proposals by the rapporteur (Liliane Maury-Pasquier, Switzerland, SOC), the Assembly called on European governments to evaluate their preventive health care strategies, paying renewed attention to the social determinants of health.
28/01/2011 | Session
In a resolution adopted today on the basis of a report on capitalising on older people’s working potential by Denis Jacquat (France, EPP/CD), PACE proposed a series of measures to promote active ageing. In the Assembly’s view, states should, in particular, consider “adopting legislation to prohibit age discrimination and removing labour-market barriers”, thus enabling older people to enter, remain in or return to the labour market more flexibly.
28/01/2011 | Monitoring
Joseph Debono Grech (Malta, SOC) and Pedro Agramunt (Spain, EPP/CD), PACE co-rapporteurs on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Azerbaijan, will be making a fact-finding visit to that country on 1-3 February. In Baku, talks are scheduled with the President of the Republic, the Speaker of Parliament, the Ministers of Justice and National Security, the Prosecutor General and the Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission.
27/01/2011 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
"Worrying evidence of global climate change continues to mount. According to the World Meteorological Organisation, 2010 was the warmest year on record, and the nine other warmest years have all occurred since 1998, while winter Arctic sea-ice cover reached its lowest level ever", underlines a statement adopted by PACE's Environment Committee.
27/01/2011 | Session
At the opening of this morning`s session, the President of the Assembly regretfully announced that the Prime Minister of Albania, Sali Berisha, would not be able to be present in Strasbourg and to make his speech this afternoon at 3pm.