13/01/2009 | Monitoring
Georges Colombier (France, EPP/CD) and John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC), PACE co-rapporteurs on the monitoring of obligations and commitments by Armenia, will go to Yerevan from 14 to 16 January 2009, for a follow-up visit in connection with the implementation of PACE Resolutions 1609 (2008) and 1620 (2008) on the functioning of democratic institutions in Armenia.
09/01/2009 | Bureau
PACE Bureau meeting in Barcelona, today adopted the following statement: “PACE Bureau fully supports the resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council on 8 January 2009. It calls for an immediate ceasefire to be respected by all sides. Both sides must understand that violence, destruction and death will only lead to more violence and death. Our Assembly, which has always stood for peace and human rights, cannot accept the deadly escalation of the last days."
06/01/2009 | Bureau
The President of the Parliament of Catalonia, Ernest Benach, will be delivering a welcome address at the opening of the Bureau meeting, to be held at the said Parliament in Barcelona. The Bureau will be updating the draft agenda for the PACE Winter Session (26-30 January 2009) and taking stock of the current work of the Presidential Committee and various other committees on the implementation of Resolution 1633 (2008) on the consequences of the war between Georgia and Russia. The agenda also includes the preparations for the 2009 debate on the state of human rights in Europe and the events connected with the 60th anniversary of the Council of Europe.
05/01/2009 | President
PACE President Lluís Maria de Puig has called for an end to all violence in Gaza. He condemned the rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel by the Hamas movement and the air strikes by Israel on Gaza, leading to a disproportionate number of casualties. "Violence, destruction and death will never resolve the Middle East problem. On the contrary, they will lead to more violence and death. The only solution is a political one: renewing the ceasefire, dialogue and negotiations," he said. "The Assembly, which has always stood for peace and human rights, cannot accept the deadly escalation of the last hours."
23/12/2008 | President
“The Council of Europe was created 60 years ago with the aim of achieving greater unity between its members. Its core objective is to preserve and promote human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The coming year, 2009, is an opportunity to mark this anniversary and to look towards the future and the challenges it brings" stated Miguel Ángel Moratinos, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers and Spain’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Co-operation, Lluís Maria De Puig, President of the Parliamentary Assembly, and Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
18/12/2008 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
The Council of Europe has a unique opportunity to take up a global challenge, not its usual vocation of maintaining peace, but that of getting humankind to refocus on its environment, according to John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC), speaking during a Paris meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly’s Environment Committee. “Throughout the 20th century, human beings have served the economy, but in the 21st, it is the economy’s to serve human beings and the environment,” he said. Mr Prescott proposed that a parliamentary debate be held in 2009 to help generate a political consensus on a fair way of distributing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
18/12/2008 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
In a draft recommendation adopted today, the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs calls for a genuine policy to be devised in member states for preventing chronic diseases associated with environmental pollution – including pollution in the home – and for environmental medicine to be recognised as a new medical discipline.
18/12/2008 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
“The large-scale production of plants such as wheat, maize or sugar cane to manufacture agrofuels is not a miracle solution to cope with the alarming reduction in fossil energy. On the contrary, it might even, as has happened in South America, cause a major price increase in agricultural products for human consumption, thus jeopardising access to food,” declared Nigel Evans (United Kingdom, EDG), member of the Committee on the Environment, who wrote a report on “Growing food and fuel.”
18/12/2008 | Monitoring
Declaring it “unacceptable” that persons could be charged and deprived of their liberty for political motivation in Armenia in relation to the events of 1 and 2 March 2008, the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) yesterday recommended suspending the...
17/12/2008 | Monitoring
The two PACE Monitoring Committee co-rapporteurs on the consequences of the war between Russia and Georgia have expressed serious concern that the escalation of tensions and provocations along the administrative borders could lead to “renewed clashes or an outbreak of hostilities” between the two member states. In a preliminary draft explanatory memorandum made public today by PACE’s Monitoring Committee, meeting in Paris, Luc van den Brande (Belgium, EPP/CD) and Mátyás Eörsi (Hungary, ALDE) called for access for international monitors to South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
16/12/2008 | Political Affairs and Democracy
In his report on private military and security firms and the erosion of the state monopoly on the use of force, adopted today by the Political Affairs Committee, Wolfgang Wodarg (Germany, SOC) criticises the shift in public security obligations to the private sector. He warns against the uncontrolled activities of European private military and security companies.
12/12/2008 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Adopting a draft resolution on the humanitarian consequences of the war between Georgia and the Russian Federation, PACE´s Committee on Migration called on both states and the de facto authorities in South Ossetia and Abkhazia to investigate and where appropriate prosecute all human rights violations and violations of humanitarian law. Following the proposals of the rapporteur (Corien Jonker, Netherlands, EPP/CD), the parliamentarians also said that reparations for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law should be provided, including restitution of property and payment of compensation.