25/05/2010 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
"National parliaments are key players to promote gender equalities - and synergies with governments are needed. It is time indeed to bridge the gap between de jure and de facto equality. Drafting and adopting laws is not enough", today said in Baku José Mendes Bota, Chairperson of the PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, adressing the 7th Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Equality between Women and Men.
21/05/2010 | Standing Committee
While recalling that the Council of Europe plays a major role in setting standards in the human rights field and in developing international law, the Assembly today called on member states to renew their commitment vis-à-vis this normative corpus. To this end, the number of ratifications of treaties – particularly the more basic conventions – must increase. Furthermore, existing treaties must be re-examined and updated as appropriate or indeed, in extreme cases, abrogated, the parliamentarians said.
21/05/2010 | Standing Committee
The European air transport industry, which in normal times provides employment for over 3 million people in the EU, has been put under severe pressure by the recession. And although prospects have improved with the recent recovery of economic activity, the air transport industry faces a range of intensifying challenges. The Assembly called on European States to implement a supportive and above all better coordinated European regulatory framework so to respond to challenges such as industry consolidation, alliances and cost-reduction as well as fine-tuning the response to demand.
21/05/2010 | Standing Committee
Gender budgeting is a tool for safeguarding women’s health, PACE said today. Adopting a report by Ingrida Circene (Latvia, PP/CD), the parliamentarians said that since health research shows that disease differs between men and women, strategies of prevention and treatment should be adapted to their differing needs. Governments, they said, should be much more aware of gender differences in developing health policies and use gender-budgeting techniques to allocate resources in a fair and efficient way.
21/05/2010 | Standing Committee
The Assembly today welcomed the new code of Code of good practice in the field of political parties, prepared by the Venice Commission. The report by Pedro Agramunt (Spain, EPP/CD) considers it "a systematic repertoire of best practice in Europe", offering public authorities and courts a yardstick to assess the practice of political parties continent-wide. The Assembly should forward it to national delegations, parliaments and political parties.
21/05/2010 | Standing Committee
In a resolution adopted today in Skopje, PACE invited member states to “encourage the use of geothermal energy”. According to the Assembly, in order to achieve this goal it is essential, to “increase realisation and awareness among the general public and potential investors of the advantages of geothermal technologies”, and to set up suitable “strategic research programmes, financing and insurance schemes”.
21/05/2010 | Standing Committee
The Assembly elected the Council of Europe’s new Secretary General, Thorbjorn Jagland, by a significant majority, with a clear mandate to pursue reform, and should now aim to assist him in implementing the institutional improvements he envisages, the Assembly said today. Given the current difficulties, 2011 must therefore be regarded as a year of transition, the parliamentarians believe.
21/05/2010 | Standing Committee
In a resolution adopted today in Skopje, the PACE urged member to “increase the quality, quantity and regularity of the information they share with other member states on sex offenders” for effective oversight of their movements from one country to another, and to do so in compliance with the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data.
21/05/2010 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Alongside the 7th Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Equality between Women and Men (Baku, 24-25 May), a PACE delegation of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men headed by its Chairman, José Mendes Bota (Portugal, EPP/CD) will hold bilateral exchanges of views on women’s place in political life and prevention of violence against women.
21/05/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The situation of local democracy in Venezuela will be central to the exchange of views which PACE's Committee on Local and Regional Affairs will hold in Paris on Friday 28 May 2009 starting at 9.30 am (55, avenue Kléber, 75116 Paris, Boissière metro station). The meeting will be open to the press. Prominent among the participants are Diego Arria, former Ambassador of Venezuela to the UN, and Juan Carlos Alvarez, son and lawyer of Oswaldo Alvarez, a Venezuelan objector and former candidate to the Presidency of the Republic.
21/05/2010 | Monitoring
In an information note on the functioning of democratic institutions in Moldova, declassified by the Monitoring Committee on 19 May, the co-rapporteurs urged the majority coalition and the Communist Party to enter into constructive negotiations, showing the necessary political will to come to an agreement, on amendments to Article 78 of the constitution in order to facilitate the election of the President of the Republic, while fully availing themselves of the Venice Commission’s expertise.
21/05/2010 | Standing Committee
"The priorities of the Macedonian Chairmanship [of the Committee of Ministers] largely coincide with those that I promote as President of the Parliamentary Assembly,” today said Mevlüt Çavusoglu at the opening of the PACE Standing Committee in Skopje.