23/06/2009 | Session
In a resolution adopted today, the Assembly considers that the main challenge facing international financial institutions such as the IMF and development banks such as the World Bank, as well as the governments that fund them, is to ensure adequate global liquidity and stability in order to restore growth and hence employment. According to Kimmo Sasi (Finland, EPP/CD), author of the report on this subject, restoring health to the international banking system must be a top priority.
23/06/2009 | Session
After discussing an information note prepared by PACE co-rapporteurs with respect of Ukraine, on the basis of their last visit to Kiev from 5 to 8 April 2009, the PACE Monitoring Committee today expressed its concern that the positive changes to the Law on Elections of the President of Ukraine, adopted after the controversial second round of the Presidential election in 2004, were only of a temporary nature and will not be applicable for the forthcoming Presidential elections.
23/06/2009 | Session
A report approved today by PACE Legal Affairs Committee has recommended a series of steps to boost the independence of judges across Europe to end what it calls “politically-motivated interference” in individual cases. The report, prepared by Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (Germany, ALDE), exposes ways that politicians can meddle with the law in four countries representing the principal types of criminal justice system in Europe.
23/06/2009 | Session
Thomas Mirow, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) underlined on 23 June at the Assembly the effects of the global financial crisis. ''Ten countries –including Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine- are expected to suffer severe recessions or depressions, with growth in the order of -4 to -15% in 2009'', stated the EBRD President.
23/06/2009 | Session
While recalling that funding from the EBRD has become more important than ever for those countries it supports, the Assembly believes that the EBRD needs to continue its efforts to co-operate with other banks and international financial institutions, in order to avoid overlapping activities. According to the parliamentarians, there is scope for greater co-ordination with the Council of Europe too, such as carrying out joint projects with the Development Bank, or working more closely with Council bodies active in the economic sphere.
23/06/2009 | Monitoring
The PACE Monitoring Committee held an exchange of views today on the situation in Moldova and made public the information note on follow-up to Resolution 1666 (2009) prepared by the committee’s co-rapporteurs, Josette Durieu (France, SOC) and Egidijus Vareikis (Lithuania, EPP/CD), on the basis of their visit to Chisinau on 10 June 2009. In this note the rapporteurs called on the authorities to apply scrupulously the new provisions of the Electoral Code. They also recommended that the Assembly Bureau appoint a strong delegation to observe the elections in Moldova on 29 July 2009.
23/06/2009 | Session
The President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, today acknowledged the role of the Council of Europe creating a context for change in Northern Ireland, and for its advocacy and support to the peace process. Speaking at the Parliamentary Assembly on 23 June, she pointed out the success of police reforms in Northern Ireland as a major step in the process.
23/06/2009 | Session
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), meeting in plenary session in Strasbourg, today voted in favour of restoring the Special Guest status of the Belarusian Parliament, which has been suspended since 1997, with a view to "engaging in political dialogue with the authorities" while supporting "the strengthening of democratic forces and civil society". This status, however, could only be granted “after a moratorium on the execution of the death penalty is decreed”.
23/06/2009 | Session
"The fact is that the Council of Europe is a logical whole, in which every part, from the Committee of Ministers to the Assembly, the Court to the Congress, the Commissioner, the operational directorates and the partial agreements, all have their own roles and reinforce each other’s work. [...] That is how our organisation has developed and disseminated democracy, defended and extended human rights, advocated and encouraged the rule of law over the past sixty years, and this is how it will continue to carry out its mission for decades to come...," declared the Secretary General.
22/06/2009 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“Parliamentarians need to pay special attention to the six countries which have neither signed nor ratified the Council of Europe Convention on ‘Action against Trafficking in Human Beings’ so far,” today said Gisela Wurm (Austria, SOC), PACE rapporteur on the subject, during an exchange of views, organised by the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men on the fringes of the PACE summer session. “The problem of possible duplication of monitoring work with other organisations, in particular the EU, constitutes another concern,” Ms Wurm added, emphasizing the importance of cooperation with all actors in the field.
22/06/2009 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The Committee on Economic Affairs and Development, meeting in Paris at the OECD headquarters on 19 June 2009, unanimously adopted a preliminary draft report on the activities of the OECD in 2008-2009. The committee had invited Corinne Lepage, former French Minister of the Environment, and Enrico Giovannini, chief statistician of OECD, to discuss the report "Wealth, welfare and wellbeing: how to reconcile them in a changing Europe?" (Konstantinos Vrettos, Greece, SOC), and raised the major economic challenges, but also the environmental, social and democratic challenges, that western societies would face in the near future.
22/06/2009 | Session
Samuel Žbogar, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers and Slovenian Foreign Minister, expressed ''his deep disappointment and concern at the decision to withdraw the Secretary General's election from the agenda''. He expressed the wish that this election would take place at the earliest possible moment while underlining that the Committee of Ministers' aim is to continue constructive dialogue with the Assembly.