25/01/2008 | Session
Member states should give local and regional authorities the powers, tools and cash to enable them to work together and to further develop transfrontier co-operation, the Assembly said today. According to parliamentarians, the Council’s own bodies should speed up or expand their work in this area, while the EU should continue to fund worthwhile joint projects, including ones at its own outer frontiers.
24/01/2008 | Session
The recent crisis preceding Georgia’s presidential election has overshadowed the “numerous positive steps” it has taken to fulfil its Council of Europe obligations, the organisation’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) said today. Debating Georgia’s record following an address by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, the parliamentarians said there had been substantial reforms of the most important institutions, and a significant number of commitments had been fulfilled.
24/01/2008 | Session
Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, and Andrew McIntosh (United Kingdom, SOC), Chairman of the Sub-Committee on the Media of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), declared today at a press conference that European states must do more to protect media freedom. Freedom of expression and information in the media was a vital element of any functioning democracy.
24/01/2008 | Session
“I would like to express my great relief and satisfaction at the early liberation of Dimitri Dashkevich,” said Andrea Rigoni (Italy, ALDE), rapporteur of PACE Political Affairs Committee on the situation in Belarus, commenting on Wednesday’s early release of the leader of the non-registered organisation Malady Front, who had been serving a prison sentence in Belarus.
24/01/2008 | Session
Meeting this week in Strasbourg, PACE today warned that the unprecedented increase in the economic emphasis placed on certain professional sports – particularly in connection with TV retransmission rights – was becoming a threat to Europe’s democratic vision of sport as something open to everyone.
24/01/2008 | Session
UEFA President Michel Platini has given his firm backing to the report by Assembly member José Luís Arnaut on the need to protect European sport from a range of threats often linked to over-commercialisation. Addressing the Parliamentary Assembly on Thursday 24 January, Mr Platini urged legislators to respect the specific nature of European sport and emphasised the key role of federations in promoting sporting cohesion and participatory democracy.
24/01/2008 | Session
In a recommendation unanimously adopted today, PACE called for the easing of international adoption rules. PACE recommended a revision of the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption, to secure harmonisation in this area and greater flexibility, while continuing to ensure that children's rights are respected.
24/01/2008 | Session
Mikhail Saakashvili, President of Georgia, said today that his government is committed to "building a stable and healthy state, one based not on personalities but on robust democratic institutions". In a speech to the Assembly, he said the last presidential elections were the first to be "truly competitive"; although he admitted the electoral process can be improved. He declared that in Abkhazia and South Ossetia systematic abuses of human rights continue today, and the solutions Georgia offers to the problems in these regions guarantee the integrity of the State, self governance and the protection of human freedoms.
23/01/2008 | Session
The Assembly today offered the states having observer status with the Council of Europe much broader opportunities to be involved in its work, but also suggested they be invited to voluntarily commit to a mutually-agreed set of standards. Future applicants for observer status could be expected make formal commitments to basic Council of Europe values, the parliamentarians suggested.
23/01/2008 | Session
On the occasion of the wreath-Laying ceremony, PACE President Lluis Maria de Puig declared:"This Sunday, we will remember the 63rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. This concentration camp is a symbol of how the extermination of human beings was brought to perverted perfection. The murder of millions of people because of their Jewish or other ethnic origin, their religious beliefs, their political views or sexual orientation illustrates the darkest period of our history.
23/01/2008 | Session
“The existence of an effective political opposition is crucial if parliamentary democracy is to be viable,” Karim Van Overmeire (Belgium, NR), rapporteur for the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Immunities, said today. As he further emphasised, the status of the parliamentary opposition varies from one country to another according to the constitutional framework or the electoral system. It is therefore important that these parliaments update their rules on the rights of the opposition, by drawing up a charter of those rights or defining a proper status for the opposition in parliament.
23/01/2008 | Session
Progress in the Central Asian states is barely perceptible where respect for human rights and rule of law are concerned. To guard against the genuine risk of social explosion and political collapse in these states, far-reaching reforms are necessary according to Murat Mercan (Turkey, EPP/CD), rapporteur for the PACE Political Affairs Committee.