25/11/2010 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu has discussed a range of Council of Europe priorities and initiatives with Finnish leaders during an official visit to the country, including plans for reform of the Organisation and the forthcoming accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights.
25/11/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“Investing in negawatts is the cheapest way to reduce our ecological footprint. The development of renewable energy and energy-saving are not only safer but also more cost-effective alternatives to fossil fuels than nuclear energy”, said Aleksei Lotman (Estonia, UEL), Chair of PACE Environment Committee, at the opening today of a two-day conference on nuclear energy organised by the committee in Strasbourg.
25/11/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Lord Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC), PACE rapporteur on climate change, has called on the nations of the world to agree on basic principles for fighting climate change voluntarily – as he believes no legally-binding agreement can emerge from next week’s UN talks in Cancun. “The legal framework is falling apart. Let us be practical, recognise that it has happened, and go for an alternative,” said Mr Prescott, who as British Deputy Prime Minister played a key role in negotiating the 1997 Kyoto Accord on behalf of the EU.
25/11/2010 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
"It is a fact that tens of thousands of women around the world are murdered every year by their husbands, partners or ex-partners simply because they are women, let alone those who are specifically targeted in warfare and other extreme situations. In terms of numbers of victims alone, this is the equivalent, every month, of more than the number who died in the 9/11 attacks in New York! There is a civil war going on in our backyards," declared José Mendes Bota (Portugal, EPP/CD), Chair of the Committee on Equal Opportunities.
25/11/2010 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Björn von Sydow (Sweden, SOC), PACE rapporteur on the situation in Kosovo, and Chair of the PACE Political Affairs Committee, will conduct a fact-finding visit to Kosovo from 28 to 30 November 2010. The main purpose of this visit is to assess the political situation on the ground and the position of the various communities, prior to the early elections to be held on 12 December 2010.
24/11/2010 | President
“Finland has very strong democratic traditions and it has always been a fervent promoter and defender of the Council of Europe and its values,” PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu said today in his speech to the Finnish Institute for International Affairs as part of his official visit to Finland (24-27 November). “It is an example for many other European countries as a leader in fields such as the fight against discrimination, the rights of minorities, Roma rights and the fight against corruption, and it holds records in women’s rights.”
24/11/2010 | Election observation
A 27-member PACE delegation, led by Indrek Saar (Estonia, SOC), will be in Moldova from 26 to 29 November to observe the holding of the early parliamentary elections, alongside observers from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the European Parliament and the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The delegation will be meeting the representatives of the main political parties standing for the elections, the Central Electoral Commission, as well as representatives of civil society and the media, before observing the polling on 28 November.
23/11/2010 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu met Bakir Izetbegovic, Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, today in Ankara, and congratulated him on his recent election to the tripartite Presidency. In talks, the President pointed out that Bosnia and Herzegovina was “seriously lagging behind” in the implementation of its post-accession commitments to the Council of Europe, a matter for disappointment, but welcomed Mr Izetbegovic’s stated ambition to fulfil these commitments as soon as possible.
22/11/2010 | Monitoring
The Parliamentary Assembly’s two co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Azerbaijan, Pedro Agramunt (Spain, EPP/CD) and Joseph Debono Grech (Malta, SOC), have welcomed the release by the Azerbaijani authorities of the two bloggers Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli. "This is an important step forward and a clear sign that the Azerbaijani authorities are willing to resolve the issues that have hindered their co-operation with the Council of Europe. We hope that we can soon welcome further progress on other outstanding issues," they said.
19/11/2010 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Presenting his memorandum on reconciliation and political dialogue between the countries of the former Yugoslavia,* made public during a meeting of the Political Affairs Committee meeting in Paris yesterday, PACE rapporteur Pietro Marcenaro (Italy, SOC) pointed out that – since the committee had embarked on this report in January 2009 – the governments concerned had made many positive steps, indicating a greater willingness to overcome the legacy of the past.
19/11/2010 | Political Affairs and Democracy
During an exchange of views with representatives from Belarus, organised by the Political Affairs Committee in Paris on 18 November, parliamentarians called for visible progress in the conduct of the forthcoming Presidential elections on 19 December 2010, and in particular with regard to the freedom of the media. They took note with interest of information according to which positive developments with regard to the abolition of the death penalty might be expected in the near future.
18/11/2010 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Co-operation between PACE and the European Parliament should focus on how to create a common European space in terms of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, avoiding the creation of new borders within Europe, participants concluded at a hearing on the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on PACE and the European Parliament, organised by the PACE Political Affairs Committee in Paris today.