07/12/2009 | Monitoring
Josette Durrieu (France, SOC) and Egidijus Vareikis (Lithuania, EPP/CD), co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of the obligations and commitments of Moldova, today made the following statement: "We have taken note of the results of the second round of the presidential election in Moldova, which took place today, and we note that the institutional deadlock continues."
04/12/2009 | Monitoring
As part of the post-monitoring dialogue with Bulgaria, Serhiy Holovaty (Ukraine, ALDE), Chair of PACE Monitoring Committee, will travel to Sofia on 7-8 December on a fact-finding visit. This will include meetings with the President of the National Assembly Tsetska Tsacheva, the Minister of the Interior Tsvetan Tsvetanov, the Minister of Justice Margarita Popova, the President of the Supreme Court Lazar Gruev and the Chief Prosecutor Boris Velchev.
04/12/2009 | Monitoring
Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD), PACE co-rapporteur on the honouring of obligations and commitments by Ukraine, will make a fact-finding visit to Kyiv on 7-8 December, during which she will examine the legal framework for the presidential elections on 17 January 2010, and take stock of the reform of the Prokuratura (Office of the Public Prosecutor), the reform of the judiciary and the drafting of a unified election code.
04/12/2009 | President
"PACE represents the most representative pan-European political forum to discuss initiatives and proposals by member states regarding European and world affairs," declared Lluís Maria de Puig during his meeting with Sergei Mironov, Chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation held on 3 December 2009 in Saint Petersburg. In this connection, Mr de Puig announced his intention to invite the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitri Medvedev, to present before the parliamentarians of the 47 member states his recent initiatives concerning the new European Security Architecture as well as the creation of an international tribunal on the acts of piracy.
03/12/2009 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
“The developments over the last 24 hours in solving the plight of the four teenagers detained in Tskhinvali, and the five ethnic Ossetians held by the Georgian authorities, are to be welcomed,” said Corien Jonker (Netherlands, EPP/CD), PACE rapporteur on the humanitarian consequences of the war between Georgia and Russia. “The release has not come too soon, and although two of the four teenagers are still in detention, the indications are that they too will be released in the near future.”
03/12/2009 | News
STRASBOURG, 05.01.2000 - "The decision of the Ukrainian Constitutional Court that the death penalty is unconstitutional and can therefore no longer be applied, is a welcome step forward in the honouring of Ukraine's obligations and commitments as a member state of the Council of Europe. I trust that this decision will soon be followed by the formal ratification of Protocol 6 to the European Human Rights Convention concerning the abolition of the death penalty," said Lord RUSSELL-JOHNSTON, President of the COUNCIL OF EUROPE Parliamentary Assembly.
30/11/2009 | President
“Although it expresses the popular will, the decision to ban the construction of new minarets in Switzerland is a source of profound concern to me”, said PACE President, Lluís Maria de Puig, commenting today on the referendum of 28 November. “On the one hand, this position reflects fears within the Swiss population – and the population of Europe as a whole – regarding Islamic fundamentalism; on the other, far from helping to tackle the causes of fundamentalism, it is likely to encourage feelings of exclusion and deepen the rifts in our societies”, he added.
30/11/2009 | President
"My most sincere condolences to the families of those who lost their lives as a result of Friday's bomb attack," said President de Puig, responding to reports of a terrorist attack on the Moscow to St. Petersburg railway line. "The Assembly condemns terrorism as an affront to the civilised values of our Organisation and its member states," he added.
26/11/2009 | Election observation
PACE pre-election delegation observed an overall free and competitive atmosphere in Ukraine in the run-up to the 17 January 2010 Presidential election. The situation with the freedom of the media improved significantly after the 2004 elections. The delegation notes the commitment and endeavors of journalists, although it recognises that the media works under heavy financial and business influences. In order to assist more efficiently the Ukrainian people to make a well-founded choice, politicians should have no role in setting the agenda for the media. Intimidation is, hopefully, a thing of the past.
25/11/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE rapporteur on climate change, John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC), has welcomed US President Barack Obama’s decision to attend the UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen. At a PACE committee meeting on Friday, and during a later House of Commons debate, Mr Prescott called on the President – as well as the leaders of China and India – to attend the event. “Hopefully China and India will now follow Obama’s lead,” Mr Prescott said today.
25/11/2009 | President
Council of Europe member states should aim to adopt laws in the field of minorities on the basis of the best European practice, declared PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig at the end of a two-day official visit to Hungary (24-25 November). He stressed that Council of Europe standards and instruments, including the expertise of the Venice Commission, its group of independent legal experts, should be used to settle possible conflicts. Besides this legal framework, the Parliamentary Assembly represents the most appropriate forum to pursue political dialogue on these issues, the President pointed out.
25/11/2009 | 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 Rome (23-24 November 2009) by calling for a solution to the structural problem of excessive length of judicial proceedings in Italy. Mr Pourgourides called upon members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, representing both the ruling party and the opposition, to act together to adopt all the necessary measures to speed up criminal and civil proceedings.