25/01/2010 | Session
While underlining that the entry into force of Protocol 14 represented a big breath of air for the European Court of Human Rights, the Committee of Ministers' Chairperson insisted on the need to look beyond. She also welcomed the Secretary General's draft reform of the Organisation and of the full support of the Ministers' Deputies.
25/01/2010 | Session
At the opening of its plenary Winter Session, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today elected its Vice-Presidents. The seat of Vice-President in respect of Ukraine remains vacant.
25/01/2010 | Session
PACE 318-member today elected Mevlüt Çavusoglu (Turkey, EDG) as its new President at the opening of its plenary session in Strasbourg (25-29 January). Mr Çavusoglu succeeds Lluís Maria de Puig (Spain, SOC) as the Assembly’s 25th President. He is the first Turk to hold the office since Turkey’s accession to the Council of Europe in August 1949. “I come from a country which has prided itself for two millennia on being a bridge between continents,” Mevlüt Çavusoglu said in his first speech as PACE President.
25/01/2010 | Session
At the opening of its Winter plenary session (25-29 January 2010) in Strasbourg this morning, the Assembly decided to hold a current affairs debate on what Europe can do for Haiti, an item that will be debated on Thursday morning, and to debate the challenge of the credentials of the parliamentary delegations of Albania and Armenia, a question which will be discussed the same day. Other highlights of the session include debates on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, the situation in the Middle East (with statements by Daniel Ayalon, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, and Mohammad Shtayyeh, Minister of Public Works and Housing of the Palestinian National Authority) and action against trafficking in human beings. Prominent personalities due to address the Assembly include George A. Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece.
22/01/2010 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
As part of a parliamentary debate on action against trafficking in human beings and the need to promote the Council of Europe convention on trafficking, the PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men will hold an exchange of views open to the press, in the presence of Nikolay Mikhaylovich Rantsev, the father of a victim of trafficking, and his lawyer, on Tuesday 26 January. The meeting will be followed by a press conference.
21/01/2010 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE Rapporteur on the Middle East Piero Fassino (Italy, SOC) has called on Israelis and Palestinians to re-start negotiations as soon as possible. Speaking in Jerusalem at the end of a four-day visit to the region, during which he met President Shimon Peres and President Abu Mazen, Mr Fassino said: “We cannot accept an unending conflict in the Middle East. Thanks to President Obama’s initiative, there is a new opportunity for peace. We must not let it go by.” He said that in spite of difficulties, there were signals all agreed on, which showed peace was possible. The Assembly is to debate Mr Fassino’s report in Strasbourg on Tuesday 26 January.
21/01/2010 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Strasbourg, 21.01.2010 – A public parliamentary hearing titled “The handling of the H1N1 pandemic: more transparency needed?” is to be held on the fringe of the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg from 8.15-10 a.m. on Tuesday 26 January...
20/01/2010 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Piero Fassino (Italy, SOC), PACE rapporteur on the situation in the Middle East, who today completes a four-day visit to the region, will hold a press conference on Thursday 21 January at 10.30 a.m. at the King David Hotel (Holy Room) in Jerusalem. In Ramallah, on 17-18 January, Mr Fassino met the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, the Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad Al-Malki, the Chief Negociator Saeb Erekat, the Minister of Prisoners Affairs Issa Qaraqi', and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
20/01/2010 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD), PACE rapporteur on the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, has ended a two-day visit to Athens (18-19 January 2010) with a call for a number of problems in the execution of these judgments to be solved. Mr Pourgourides called on the representatives of the Greek authorities to co-ordinate more effectively the different state bodies which are responsible for the execution of the European Court's judgments. He also invited Greek parliamentarians to monitor the implementation of these judgments within the Parliament, and has been assured that they will do so.
19/01/2010 | President
Lluís Maria de Puig, visiting the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) yesterday, carried out his last official act as President of the Parliamentary Assembly. He chose this prestigious university to receive a collection of more than 100 Council of Europe publications relating to the organisation's activities in the fields of education, communication and culture. The President of PACE emphasised the “often discreet, but always irreplaceable” role of “the 47” in protecting and promoting culture in Europe. “Although our fellow citizens all too often focus on Brussels, another Europe exists which would feel bereft without our organisation's work on culture; this is a continent which wants education, in the context of European construction, to have its rightful place at the very heart of society.”
18/01/2010 | Election observation
The first round of Ukraine’s presidential election was of high quality and showed significant progress over previous elections, meeting most OSCE and Council of Europe commitments, concluded the international election observation mission in a statement published today. The observers noted that the election demonstrated respect for civil and political rights, and offered voters a genuine choice between candidates representing diverse political views. Candidates were able to campaign freely, and the campaign period was generally calm and orderly.
15/01/2010 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Piero Fassino (Italy, SOC), PACE rapporteur on the situation in the Middle East, will visit the Territories under the Palestinian Authority as well as Israel, with a view to the debate on the situation in the Middle East which is foreseen during the next PACE plenary session (25–29 January 2010).