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.
22/06/2009 | Prizes
PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig is to award mayors of 18 prize-winning municipalities with the European Diploma 2009, on the occasion of a ceremony which will take place on Wednesday 24 June 2009 at 3.30 pm in the Palais de l'Europe (Room 5). The Diploma not only acknowledges the work done at European level by the prize-winning municipalities, but also serves as an incentive to develop it further through contacts with twin towns and other European partners.
22/06/2009 | Election observation
A PACE 19-member delegation, led by Corien Jonker (Netherlands, EPP/CD), will be visiting Albania from 26 to 29 June to observe the parliamentary elections, alongside observers from the OSCE and NATO Parliamentary Assemblies, and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR). The delegation is to meet the President of the Central Electoral Commission and representatives of the political parties standing in the election, civil society and the media, before observing the ballot on 28 June in a sample of polling stations across the country.
22/06/2009 | Session
The President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) addressed the Assembly on 22 June, highlighting the global relevance of human rights. The current Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Namibia focused on the co-operation between IPU - which celebrates its 120th anniversary - and the Council of Europe, facing common challenges in the international political arena.
22/06/2009 | Session
At the opening of its Summer session (22-26 June 2009) in Strasbourg, the Assembly decided not to include on its agenda the election of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe (due to be held on Tuesday 23 June) and not to hold an urgent debate on the issue. The parliamentarians decided to discuss the situation in Iran during an urgent debate on Thursday 25 June. Other highlights of the session include the biennial debate on “the state of human rights in Europe", as well as debates on the situation in Belarus and the creation in the Assembly of a "Partner for democracy" status for the parliaments of countries neighbouring the Council of Europe.
22/06/2009 | Session
In his opening address at the summer session, Lluís Maria de Puig said that he hoped the Assembly would adopt a resolution on Tuesday calling for the Belarusian parliament's Special Guest status to be restored. This was simply a first step and very strict conditions would be applied before even a second one could be contemplated, he said. Nevertheless, it was an “outstretched hand”, to the authorities and the opposition, both of whom would have the opportunity to take part in the Assembly's activities.