29/03/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“The next time someone cries wolf over a pandemic, the overwhelming majority will not take it seriously,” participants were told today at a hearing on the handling of the H1N1 pandemic, organised in Paris by PACE’s Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee. “A pandemic cannot be whatever the WHO declares it is. If it turns out that former PACE member Wolfgang Wodarg was right when he said the pandemic was decided to help the pharmaceutical industry make bigger profits, this might well turn out to be one of the biggest health scandals,” said Paul Flynn (United Kingdom, SOC), PACE rapporteur on this issue.
29/03/2010 | President
"I wish to express my most sincere condolences to the families of those who lost their lives as a result of these horrendous attacks, and my solidarity with those injured. In our societies there is no place for those who use bombs to kill innocent people. Such acts will achieve nothing, but will sow only terror and grief. The Russian authorities can count on the full support of the Parliamentary Assembly in combating those who were behind this atrocity," declared Mevlüt Çavusoglu, following the two bomb attacks on the Moscow Metro this morning.
29/03/2010 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu will be attending the 122nd Assembly of the Interparliamentary Union, which will be looking at the role of parliaments in political reconciliation and good governance, interparliamentary co-operation in the global fight against organised crime and trafficking in human beings, and the participation of young people in the democratic process.
29/03/2010 | President
“Political reconciliation is rooted in our Organisation and is part of its DNA,” said PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu, speaking at the 122nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, being held in Bangkok. “Reconciliation has always been the 'raison d’être’ of the Council of Europe. The fundamental values that we support and promote - democracy, human rights and the rule of law - are the aim of our Organisation, but they are also a means to an end: namely, reconciliation and long-lasting peace on our continent,” he added.
26/03/2010 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
"Rural development, sustainable agriculture, food security, environment and the protection of cultural heritage cannot be achieved through efforts that ignore or exclude more than half of the rural population - women," participants agreed at a hearing on “the real situation of rural women in Europe", organised by PACE Equality Committee in Paris.
25/03/2010 | President
PACE President, Mevlüt Çavusoglu, has warmly welcomed the imminent setting up of a parliamentary committee in Moldova to revise Article 78 of the Constitution – concerning the election of the President of the Republic – and said it was “encouraging” that all political forces, including the opposition, have designated representatives to it.
25/03/2010 | Monitoring
PACE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Armenia have welcomed the prompt response of the Armenian authorities to their call for a “roadmap” to put into effect the reforms recommended in the aftermath of the March 2008 election violence. “We welcome the wide range of reforms announced in the preliminary response of the authorities to our recommendation, but we would also like to stress that, in the end, it will be the content of these reforms, and their implementation, that counts,” said John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC) and Georges Colombier (France, EPP/CD).
25/03/2010 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“Women continue to be discriminated against in manifold ways: they have less access to the labour market, they earn less and have lower pension income than men,” Anna Curdová (Czech Republic, SOC), rapporteur of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men ‘on decent pensions for women’ said at a meeting in Paris today.
24/03/2010 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Sinikka Hurskainen, Jacek Protasiewicz and Uta Zapf, who head the bodies dealing with Belarus for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, have firmly condemned the execution of Andrei Zhuk and Vasily Yuzepchuk which, according to human rights organisations, took place in Belarus last week in complete secrecy and which has yet to be confirmed officially by the authorities.
23/03/2010 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
At its forthcoming meeting in Paris on Thursday 25 March, PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men will be looking at gender inequality in pensions, with input from two experts. Anna Curdová (Czech Republic, SOC), currently drafting a report on this issue, will be calling for pension schemes offering women decent living conditions. The following day, Friday 26 March, the committee will hold a hearing on the real situation of rural women, the subject of a report being drafted by Carmen Quintanilla Barba (Spain, EPP/CD).
23/03/2010 | President
"The Council of Europe strongly condemns the executions of Andrei Zhuk and Vasily Yuzepchuk in Belarus," declared today the Chair of the Committee of Ministers Micheline Calmy-Rey, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly Mevlüt Çavusoglu, and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland.
22/03/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Strasbourg, 22.03.2010 – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is to hold a second public hearing on the subject “The handling of the H1N1 pandemic: more transparency needed” in Paris on Monday 29th March, followed by a press conference.Participants at the hearing, organised...