22/03/2010 | Monitoring
Three rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have welcomed the decision by President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan to pardon 70 prisoners, including Ganimat Zahidov, the editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper Azadlig. However, they regretted that Eynulla Fatullayev, another opposition editor, was not among those released.
19/03/2010 | President
PACE President Mevlüt Çavusoglu will make an official visit to Moldova from 22 to 25 March 2010, where he aims to promote stability and fully functioning democratic institutions, and contribute to moving the current political situation in the country forward.
19/03/2010 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Concerned at the upsurge of piracy, PACE’s Political Affairs Committee has encouraged Council of Europe member states to provide naval escorts to ships crossing areas at risk and asked NATO, the EU and countries concerned to renew and strengthen their anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia. Following the proposals by the rapporteur, Birgen Keles (Turkey, SOC), the committee called for a common and more relevant domestic legal framework in order to criminalise the act of piracy wherever it takes place. The Assembly will debate this question during its Spring Session (26-30 April 2010).
19/03/2010 | Monitoring
Mátyás Eörsi (Hungary, ALDE) and Kastriot Islami (Albania, SOC), co-rapporteurs for PACE's monitoring of Georgia, will visit Tbilisi from 21 to 24 March 2010 for talks on constitutional and electoral reform, the forthcoming local elections and media freedom, as well as minority issues. They are due to meet the President of the Republic, the Speaker of Parliament, the Ministers for Re-integration and for Refugees and the Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, among others.
19/03/2010 | Monitoring
Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC) and György Frunda (Romania, EPP/CD), the new co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Russia, will make their first visit to the country from 22 to 24 March 2010 to assess the state of Russia’s honouring of its obligations and commitments to the Council of Europe. In Moscow, they will hold an exchange of views with the Russian authorities and political forces on this question, and make a preliminary political evaluation of the situation.
19/03/2010 | Monitoring
PACE Monitoring Committee has welcomed the progress made by Bulgaria since the last Assembly debate concerning that country in January 2000. The text adopted yesterday in the framework of post-monitoring dialogue states that the ruling centre-right movement GERB (Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria) "has set ambitious objectives and committed itself to continue democratic reforms", in particular to guarantee the proper functioning of justice and combat corruption and organised crime.
19/03/2010 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Strasbourg, 18.03.2010 – The EU should accede to the European Convention on Human Rights “within a couple of years”, with negotiations beginning no later than July this year, a Vice-Chair of PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee has told a European Parliament hearing in Brussels. Serhiy Holovaty...
18/03/2010 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“The Council of Europe should strengthen its involvement in Kosovo ,” said Björn von Sydow (Sweden, SOC), rapporteur for PACE's Political Affairs Committee, addressing the committee today in Paris. “Our Organisation should play a pro-active role in offering its expertise in its areas of excellence: democracy, the rule of law and human rights, with absolute priority being given to the rule of law,” he said.
18/03/2010 | President
PACE’s Presidential Committee, headed by its President Mevlüt Çavusoglu, today met in Paris with Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, the current Chair of the Committee of Ministers, and its next Chair the Foreign Minister of “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" Antonio Milososki, as well as members of the Bureau of the Committee of Ministers, in the presence of Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjörn Jagland.
18/03/2010 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“I am for dialogue with all the relevant parties, including with the Belarusian authorities. However, I do not believe that the Assembly should refrain from raising criticism or imposing conditions. A state which genuinely wants to engage with the Council of Europe cannot do so without accepting the rules of the game, and conditionality is one of them”, said Sinikka Hurskainen (Finland, SOC) PACE rapporteur on Belarus, speaking today in Paris.
17/03/2010 | Monitoring
Karin Woldseth (Norway, EDG) was today appointed as co-rapporteur for the Assembly’s monitoring of Bosnia and Herzegovina, alongside Kimmo Sasi (Finland, EPP/CD). She replaces Mevlüt Çavusoglu, who was recently elected as President of the Assembly.
17/03/2010 | Monitoring
While welcoming Montenegro’s substantial progress in implementing its commitments since accession to the Council of Europe in 2007, the Parliamentary Assembly's Monitoring Committee this morning called on the Montenegrin authorities to "maintain the current reform dynamic in order to catch up with the deadlines" and complete the implementation of the remaining post-accession commitments.