28/09/2009 | Session
In his opening speech the President recalled that he had stressed on several occasions how important it was not only to have a vote, but also to ensure that it is a strong vote, showing significant political support for the future Secretary General. “I therefore believe that, after the events of the last few months, the person elected to the head of this organisation, whoever he or she may be, will not have the slightest doubt that the confidence shown by the Assembly will have to be earned – and that we will be vigilant and demanding,” he said.
25/09/2009 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“We cannot take peace for granted, even on our continent,” said PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig, closing a two-day PACE forum on early warning in conflict prevention held in Strasbourg. “The Assembly owes it to itself to put peace, and maintaining peace, at the very heart of its work [...] We have a duty of vigilance.”
25/09/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig will present the Assembly’s 2009 Equality Prize in Strasbourg on Wednesday 30 September, at a ceremony to be held during its autumn session (28 September-2 October). The winner of the first prize, the Portuguese Socialist Party (Partido Socialista), represented by Pedro Silva Pereira, Portuguese Minister of the Presidency, will receive the trophy, a statuette by the artist Ewa Rossano, and will be offered a co-operation activity under the aegis of the PACE Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men. The winners of the second and third prizes, the British Labour Party and the Swedish Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) respectively, will receive a diploma.
24/09/2009 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
“What next?” asked Corien W.A. Jonker, Chair of PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population, commenting after the bulldozers went in to destroy the tent and shack village established by irregular migrants and asylum seekers and refugees waiting for the opportunity to cross from France into the United Kingdom. “We saw the closure of Sangatte in 2002, we have now seen the evictions from the ‘Calais Jungle’ in 2009, but we are no nearer to solving the problem of people living in desperate conditions, taking desperate steps to establish new lives,” said Mrs Jonker.
22/09/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
European governments should be guided by the words of a great American judge of last century, Mr Justice Brandeis, who wrote in 1928: “If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for the law,” according to Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD), speaking during a round table in Florence on 18-19 September on the challenges for the judiciary of the fight against terrorism.
22/09/2009 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Peace is the principal precondition for the genuine enjoyment of democracy, the rule of law and human rights. The realisation that peace between Council of Europe member states cannot be taken for granted has led PACE Bureau to organise in Strasbourg on 24-25 September 2009 a Forum on early warning in conflict prevention, with the aim of taking stock of existing mechanisms and exploring whether and how they could be further enhanced.
21/09/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The right to ‘live in a healthy and viable environment’ should be enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights, according to PACE Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs. PACE’s Rapporteur on Climate Change, former UK Deputy Prime Minister and Kyoto Protocol negotiator John Prescott is backing the call as part of its New Earth Deal campaign to secure a fairer deal at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.
17/09/2009 | Session
The challenges posed by climate change, the war between Russia and Georgia one year after and the election of the Council of Europe’s new Secretary General are among highlights of PACE autumn session in Strasbourg (28 September-2 October 2009). Slovenian President Danilo Türk will address the Assembly and French Secretary of State for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche will take part in a debate on the future of the Council of Europe in the light of its 60 years of experience.
15/09/2009 | President
Addressing today’s meeting of the General Assembly of the European Network of Local and Regional Authorities for the Implementation of the European Landscape Convention (RECEP-ENELC), the President of PACE pointed out that the Assembly has already adopted a recommendation on the conservation and use of the landscape potential of Europe.
15/09/2009 | News
A group of 72 members of PACE has requested the reconsideration of the credentials of the Russian delegation to the Assembly on the substantive grounds that Russia has persistently failed to honour its obligations and commitments.
15/09/2009 | Bureau
To mark its support for the UN International Day of Democracy on 15 September, PACE Bureau adopted the following statement: “The world’s celebration of the UN’s International Day of Democracy touches a special chord with the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly. Sixty years ago, in 1949, the Council of Europe was created by ten European countries trying desperately to recover from the onslaught of nazism and fascism and the horrors of World War II, in order that Europe would never again experience such a negation of basic human values and rights."
14/09/2009 | President
During the course of five informal meetings between the Presidential Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly and the Bureau of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, we have reached an agreement on a proposed package of measures to enhance dialogue and co-operation between the two statutory organs of the Council of Europe.