19/11/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (Germany ALDE), the former Rapporteur on "politically-motivated abuses of the criminal justice system in Council of Europe member states", today expressed her dismay at the death in a remand prison in Moscow of the lawyer Sergey Magnitsky, who had defended Hermitage Investment/HSBC against fraudulent manoeuvres allegedly involving high Russian officials, as described in the report adopted by the Assembly in October 2009.
19/11/2009 | President
PACE President, Lluís Maria de Puig, will be making an official visit to Hungary from 23 to 25 November. He is scheduled to hold meetings with President László Sólyom, the Speaker of the National Assembly Béla Katona, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, the State Secretary in the Foreign Ministry Vilmos Szabó, and with the State Secretary, Head of the Foreign Affairs’ Office Péter Sárdi.
19/11/2009 | President
“This is good news – and another step in the right direction,” said PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig, reacting to today’s decision by Russia’s Constitutional Court concerning the death penalty. “However Russia promised, when it joined the Council of Europe thirteen years ago, to abolish the death penalty in law and ratify Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights. It remains the only Council of Europe country which has not done so.”
19/11/2009 | Monitoring
PACE Monitoring Committee yesterday appointed Joseph Debono Grech (Malta, SOC) as new co-rapporteur for Azerbaijan. He is replacing Evguenia Jivkova (Bulgaria, SOC).
18/11/2009 | Monitoring
The two co-rapporteurs of PACE for the war between Georgia and Russia today called on the de facto authorities in Tskhinvali to release without delay the four Georgian teenagers arrested on 4 November 2009. “The arrest and prolonged detention of these young people will only increase the tensions and bad blood between the people in this bitterly divided region,” said the co-rapporteurs, Mátyás Eörsi (Hungary, ALDE) and Luc Van den Brande (Belgium, EPP/CD).
17/11/2009 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“Over the past few years we have been witnessing a strong resurgence of piracy at sea, and European states are comparatively powerless to cope with the scale of this phenomenon,” Birgen Keles (Turkey, SOC) emphasised at a hearing held today in Brussels by the PACE Political Affairs Committee. “Military deterrence has had a definite impact in curbing attacks, but cannot be the sole solution to the problem of piracy,” she added.
17/11/2009 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“Over the last two months, the process of negotiation in the Middle East has weakened despite the Obama administration’s recent efforts to draw the Israeli and Palestinian sides together,” Piero Fassino (Italy, SOC), PACE rapporteur on the situation in the Middle East, stressed today in Brussels at a meeting of the Sub-Committee on the Middle East.
17/11/2009 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Plans for migration and asylum in the European Union’s draft five-year plan for cross-border co-operation are too focused on the processes of migration and not enough on the people, the head of a delegation from PACE told a gathering of parliamentarians in Brussels today.
16/11/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
While recalling that the eradication of homophobia and transphobia requires the member states political resolve, the PACE Legal Affairs Committee meeting this morning in Paris adopted a draft resolution urging European governments to guarantee “legal recognition of same-sex partnerships” and the possibility of joint parental responsibility for each partner’s children, or even “the right of each partner to adopt the other partner’s children”.
16/11/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The head of PACE’s Environment Committee, speaking on behalf of PACE President Lluis Maria de Puig, today encouraged Council of Europe governments to sign the new additional protocol to the European Charter of Local Self-Government, giving citizens the right to participate in the affairs of a local authority.
13/11/2009 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Migration could well present a solution for Europe’s recovery from the economic crisis, according to Mevlüt Çavusoglu (Turkey EDG), Chair of PACE’s Sub-Committee on Migration, speaking at the end of a two-day forum, “Remain, migrate or return: what to do in a global recession?” held on 12-13 November in Antalya, Turkey. "Migrants often adapt more easily to changes than mainstream populations," Mr Cavusoglu pointed out. "Their contribution can help countries to recover and adapt to new circumstances."
12/11/2009 | President
At the end of a five-day official visit to Japan, PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig today said that co-operation between Japan and the Council of Europe should be strengthened, at both parliamentary and intergovernmental level, as well as in the field of legal co-operation.