05/06/2009 | Monitoring
The PACE Monitoring Committee, meeting in Paris today, has adopted its contribution to the debate on the state of human rights in Europe to be held by the Assembly on 24 June, during its forthcoming plenary session in Strasbourg. The text contains conclusions drawn from the specific reports on the eleven States currently subject to a monitoring procedure (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Russian Federation, Serbia and Ukraine) and the three subject to post-monitoring dialogue (Bulgaria, Turkey and "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia").
04/06/2009 | President
PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig yesterday completed an official three-day tour of Tunisia during which he outlined to the Tunisian authorities the "partner for democracy” status, which is due to be debated in the Assembly at the next part-session and will cover countries including the southern Mediterranean ones.
03/06/2009 | Election observation
A four-member PACE delegation, led by Corien Jonker (Netherlands, EPP/CD), will carry out a pre-electoral mission to Tirana on 4-5 June, ahead of the parliamentary elections to be held in Albania on 28 June 2009. The delegation is due to meet with the Prime Minister Sali Berisha, the Speaker of Parliament Jozefina Topalli, the Foreign Affairs Minister Lulezim Basha, the Interior Minister Bujar Nishani and the heads of the political parties taking part in the elections.
29/05/2009 | President
PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig, will make an official visit to Tunisia from 1 to 3 June, where he is to meet the Prime Minister and also the Minister of Justice and Human rights, the Minister of Women, Family, Children and the Elderly Affairs, as well as the Minister of Youth, Sport and Physical education. Talks are also scheduled with the Speaker of the House of deputies, and the Speaker of the House of Councillors.
29/05/2009 | 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 Sofia (28-29 May 2009) with a call for greater domestic parliamentary supervision to ensure Bulgaria implements the Court’s judgments.
29/05/2009 | Standing Committee
PACE Standing Committee, meeting in Ljubljana today, held a current affairs debate on the election process for the Secretary General of the Council of Europe - attended by Slovenian Foreign Minister Samuel Žbogar, who currently chairs the Committee of Ministers - and adopted a statement on this topic. Earlier, it held an exchange of views on the priorities of the Slovenian Chairmanship with Mr Žbogar and Slovenia's Justice Minister Aleš Zalar.
29/05/2009 | Standing Committee
In a recommendation adopted today by the Standing Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) in Ljubljana, the Assembly seeks to draw governments’ attention to the risks posed to the poorest countries by certain finance companies engaged in debt restructuring transactions, which are regarded as “vulture funds”.
29/05/2009 | Standing Committee
“Slovenia symbolises to perfection Europe's transformation, its turbulent history and its future as we would like to imagine it,” PACE President Lluis Maria de Puig told parliamentarians and Slovenian leaders today, opening a meeting of PACE’s Standing Committee in Ljubljana. “Slovenia is also proof that a country's contribution to European integration can be gauged not just by its size and GDP, but also by the political will of its leader, the scale of the ambitions of its people, and their determination.” Mr de Puig later met Slovenian President Danilo Türk.
27/05/2009 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
PACE’s Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population today held in Paris a hearing on so-called readmission agreements. The hearing was part of the preparations of a report by Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC) entitled “Readmission agreements: a neutral mechanism for the return of irregular migrants?”. According to the rapporteur, the intentions with readmission agreements might be innocent, but that they can nevertheless cause problems in terms of human rights. She said that the type of bilateral agreement that sees migrants being returned without having had the opportunity to put forward an application for asylum might be contrary to international refugee law, in particular if returned to a country where no functioning asylum system is in place.
27/05/2009 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
PACE’s Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population held a hearing in Paris today on so-called readmission agreements. The hearing was part of the preparations of a report by Tineke Strik (Netherlands, SOC) on “readmission agreements: a neutral mechanism for the return of irregular migrants?”
27/05/2009 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD), who is preparing a report on the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, begins a two-day visit to Bulgaria (28-29 May) tomorrow. He is due to meet the Minister of Justice and the Deputy Minister of the Interior, as well as other officials and the members of the Bulgarian delegation to the Assembly. This is the first in a series of visits aimed at applying parliamentary pressure on states where delays or difficulties in implementing Court judgments have arisen. He will later travel to Greece, Italy, Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine.
26/05/2009 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE's Political Affairs Committee, meeting in Paris this morning, has come out unanimously 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". The Assembly is to take a decision on the matter at its forthcoming summer plenary session (Strasbourg, 22-26 June).