24/06/2010 | Monitoring
PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia, John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC) and Georges Colombier (France, EPP/CD), have welcomed a series of initiatives outlined in the reply of the Speaker of the Armenian Parliament to their letter recommending the establishment of a clear roadmap for reforms in Armenia. While not able to give a detailed assessment of the initiatives outlined in the letter at this stage, they cautioned that more needs to be done to ensure that the reforms address the important issues raised by the Assembly.
24/06/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
While deploring the tragic consequences of the accident that befell the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the Louisiana coast, PACE’s Committee on the Environment today adopted a statement which recalls that Europe is not safe from a disaster of the same type. The text advocates stringent official formulation and supervision of standards of caution and safety to be observed for offshore oil drilling, application of the polluter pays principle where the realisation of the hazard causes pollution, and enforcement of civil, possibly criminal, sanctions in the event of proven infringement of aforementioned rules.
24/06/2010 | Session
Addressing the Parliamentary Assembly on 24 June, President Gjorge Ivanov recalled the priorities of his country’s current Chairmanship of the Organisation’s decision making body, the Committee of Ministers: strengthening human rights protection, fostering integration while respecting diversity, promoting youth participation.
24/06/2010 | Session
PACE today called on Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza “without prejudice to its own security”. In a resolution adopted by a large majority following an urgent debate, the Assembly welcomed the announcement of a partial easing of the blockade as a “first step”, but said there should be access by land and sea to allow in the goods necessary for “normal living conditions” and to permit economic development. Presenting the report to the Assembly, Piero Fassino (Italy, SOC) said lifting the blockade was “essential” to defuse tension and pave the way to a resumption of dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.
24/06/2010 | Session
The Assembly has warned that the influence of some “extra-institutional actors” on the democratic process – for example, those involved in criminal activity – is a matter for concern, and called for greater transparency. Debating a report by Hendrik Daems (Belgium, ALDE), the parliamentarians said that influence which stems from special interests which are opaque was particularly worrying, and pledged to look into the question more deeply.
23/06/2010 | Session
The Assembly today proposed a set of measures aimed at enhancing people's participation in the conduct of public affairs. They include the elaboration of an Additional Protocol to the ECHR guaranteeing the right to participate in the conduct of public affairs as a human right and a fundamental political freedom. The adopted text, based on the report by Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC), also proposes to set up a Strasbourg Democracy Forum as an umbrella structure providing an international reference in the field of democracy and a laboratory for new ideas.
23/06/2010 | Session
Debating today the state of democracy in Europe and the progress of the Assembly`s monitoring procedure, the Assembly said some of the member countries assessed were still in need of electoral reform in spite of a general improvement noted in election laws. Parliamentarians discussed how well democratic institutions are working in Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Monaco, Moldova, Montenegro, and Serbia while Bulgaria was involved in post-monitoring dialogue.
23/06/2010 | Session
In a resolution adopted today on the basis of the report by Emanuelis Zingeris (Lithuania, EPP/CD), the Assembly recommended that its member states “adopt a less national policy and a more European coordinated … reaction to face the global economic crisis”. Governments should also “pay more attention to the fight against corruption inside state institutions”. Furthermore, the PACE calls upon national parliaments to “monitor closely the reform process of economic and financial governance”.
23/06/2010 | Session
Addressing the Assembly on 23 June, the French sociologist Alain Touraine highlighted the relevance of democracy in view of the current financial crisis in Europe. He stressed the importance of strengthening general participation in the political process, and called on the Assembly's role to avoid any democratic deficit. "Media need to be reliable: freedom is essential and monopoly is dangerous for the state of democracy in Europe," he added.
23/06/2010 | Prizes
The President of the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Aleksei Lotman (Estonia, UEL), and the Chairman of the Sub-Committee on the Europe Prize, Axel Fischer (Germany, EPP/CD), today awarded mayors of 18 prize-winning municipalities with the European Diploma 2010, on the occasion of a ceremony attended by about 80 people. MM Lotman and Fischer welcomed the enthusiasm shown by the European local authorities by taking part in the ceremony.
23/06/2010 | Session
There should be no general prohibition on wearing the burqa and the niqab or other religious clothing, the PACE has said – though it added that legal restrictions may be justified “for security purposes, or where the public or professional functions of individuals require their religious neutrality, or that their face can be seen”. In a resolution unanimously adopted today, the Assembly said the veiling of women is often perceived as “a symbol of the subjugation of women to men” but a general ban would deny women “who genuinely and freely desire to do so” their right to cover their face.
23/06/2010 | Session
In a statement made during the Parliamentary Assembly debate on Islam, Islamism and Islamophobia in Europe, Jorge Sampaio, UN High Commissioner for the Alliance of Civilisations, offered further cooperation of the Alliance with the Council of Europe to fight Islamophobia. He also said that education on cultural diversity, strengthening the role of towns in managing cultural diversity, interreligious dialogue, and engaging young people should be priority strategies to fight Islamophobia.