11/06/2010 | President
In his opening speech at the European Conference of Speakers of Parliament, organised in Limassol from 10 to 11 June, PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu told the some 300 participants that increasing intolerance and discrimination were one of the biggest challenges of the era of globalization. “With the consequences of the economic crises, these problems have become even more acute,” he said underlining that the foundation of the common European home had to be built on an open society based on respect for diversity, not on exclusion, not on discrimination, not on fear and certainly not on hatred.
10/06/2010 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“The Parliamentary Assembly strongly encourages the European Union to accede to the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings as soon as possible, so that the same standards can be applied here throughout Europe, including the European Union,” said Lydie Err (Luxembourg, SOC) in Brussels today at a seminar on combating and preventing trafficking in human beings held by the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the European Parliament.
10/06/2010 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu will make an official visit to Georgia from 13 to 15 June 2010. During his visit, he is due to meet the President of the Republic Mikhail Saakashvili, the Chairman of the Parliament David Bakradze, the Vice-Prime Minister and State Minister for Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili, the Foreign Minister Gregory Vashadze and the State Minister of Refugees and Accommodation Koba Subeliani.
09/06/2010 | Session
A possible urgent debate on the flare-up of tension in the Middle East, as well as reports on the handling of the H1N1 pandemic, on Islamophobia and on legal remedies for human rights violations in the North Caucasus are among highlights of the summer session of the PACE in Strasbourg (21-25 June 2010). There will be addresses by the President of “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” Gjorgje Ivanov, the President of Croatia Ivo Josipovic, and the Prime Minister of Montenegro Milo Ðukanovic.
08/06/2010 | President
Addressing participants at the Third Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Istanbul today, PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu made a plea for soft security as a means of strengthening security and stability in a globalised world. “Peaceful co-existence of different cultures and religions, based on mutual respect, is for me one of the most important elements of this soft security and the strengthening of inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue is one of the priorities of my presidency,” he stressed.
07/06/2010 | President
“Freedom of movement of people in Europe is the absolute pre-condition for any further integration,” PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu said in his speech today at the 8th Conference of Speakers of Parliament from the countries of the South-East European Co-operation Process (SEECP) held in Antalya. He was satisfied, he said, that a visa-free regime had been introduced by several countries of the Western Balkans and that the EU Commission had recommended the abolition of visas for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania.
05/06/2010 | President
On the occasion of the ceremony to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the European Commission for Democracy through Law in Venice, PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu underlined “the importance of the co-operation between the Commission and the Assembly”. The different nature of the respective bodies – PACE being strictly political, and the Venice Commission on the other hand being eminently legal – does not prevent them from “working together and reinforcing the impact of their respective actions”, he said, as “the mission of the two bodies often coincides”. In this respect, the President mentioned “the most visible and recurrent instance of co-operation”, that of electoral observation missions.
04/06/2010 | Monitoring
Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD) and Mailis Reps (Estonia, ALDE), monitoring co-rapporteurs for PACE, have welcomed the clearly-stated objective of Ukraine’s authorities and ruling coalition to implement remaining commitments to the Council of Europe in the near future.
04/06/2010 | European Conference of Presidents of Parliament
Speakers and Presidents of Parliament from the 47 Council of Europe member states gathered on 11 and 12 June 2010 at Limassol in Cyprus, on the occasion of a conference organised by the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe...
04/06/2010 | Session
A possible urgent debate on the flare-up of tension in the Middle East, as well as reports on the handling of the H1N1 pandemic, the situation in Kosovo, Islamism and Islamophobia, and legal remedies for human rights violations in the North Caucasus are among highlights of PACE’s summer session (21-25 June 2010). There will be addresses by the President of “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” Gjorgje Ivanov, the President of Croatia Ivo Josipovic, the Prime Minister of Montenegro Milo Ðukanovic and the head of the UN’s Alliance of Civilizations Jorge Sampaio. French actress Fanny Ardant will also take part in a debate on the situation of Roma in Europe.
04/06/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The handling of the H1N1 pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), EU agencies and national governments led to a “waste of large sums of public money, and unjustified scares and fears about the health risks faced by the European public”, according to a report by PACE's Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee made public today in Paris. The report, prepared by Paul Flynn (United Kingdom, SOC) and approved today by the committee ahead of a plenary debate at the end of this month, says there was “overwhelming evidence that the seriousness of the pandemic was vastly overrated by WHO”, resulting in a distortion of public health priorities. Presenting his report, Mr Flynn told the committee: “this was a pandemic that never really was”...
02/06/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee of PACE is due to adopt the report by Paul Flynn (United Kingdom, SOC) on “The handling of the H1N1 pandemic: more transparency needed” at its meeting in Paris on 4 June.On this occasion, the committee members will be holding an exchange of views...