30/11/2007 | President
Following the execution of police officer Alyaksandr Syarheychyk, announced by the Supreme Court of Belarus [according to Belapan News Agency], PACE President said: “I’m appalled by this execution. Such a barbaric act took place on the very same day that I called on President Lukashenko to commute the death sentences handed down on three other persons. Belarus is the only European country executing people, and the only European State non- member of the Council of Europe. This execution shows that Minsk is not willing to move closer towards the values shared by all other European countries”, Mr van der Linden said.
29/11/2007 | President
PACE President René van der Linden will make an official visit to Mexico from 29 November to 5 December. In Mexico City and Monterrey he will meet the country's highest authorities, including the President of the Republic, Felipe Calderón, Speaker of the Senate, Santiago Creel, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Patricia Espinosa, as well as representatives of regional and local authorities, religious leaders, representatives of NGOs and a student representative.
28/11/2007 | President
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) President René van der Linden today called on the authorities of Belarus to commute the death sentences of Syarhey Marozaw, Ihar Danchanka and Valerii Gorbatii, who were sentenced to death by shooting by the Supreme Court in 2006.
28/11/2007 | President
European Parliament (EP) President Hans-Gert Pöttering and Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) President René van der Linden signed today in Brussels an agreement to improve cooperation between the two Institutions and increase complementary initiatives and synergies.
27/11/2007 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
At the half-way stage in the "Council of Europe Campaign to combat violence against women, including domestic violence" Darinka Stantcheva (Bulgaria, ALDE), member of PACE, is bringing together parliamentarians and representatives from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" and Romania, in the presence of Gülsün Bilgehan (Turkey, SOC), Chair of the PACE Committee on equal opportunities for women and men, to intensify interparliamentary co-operation in this area.
27/11/2007 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
At the half-way stage in the «Council of Europe Campaign to combat violence against women, including domestic violence», Jean-Guy Branger (France, EPP/CD), a PACE member, is organising a seminar for parliamentarians from Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom to intensify interparliamentary co-operation in this area.
27/11/2007 | President
PACE President René van der Linden and EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering will sign in Brussels on 28 November a cooperation agreement aimed at stepping up co-operation between the two bodies, fostering complementary initiatives and increasing synergies. The agreement is a concrete follow-up to the report “Council of Europe – European Union: a sole ambition for the European continent”,prepared by Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, and presented to the PACE in April 2006.
27/11/2007 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs will hold a hearing on environment and health in Paris, on Friday 30 November. Discussions will focus on chemical risk assessment, environmental health and medicine, and the role of NGOs in this process.
27/11/2007 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE sub-Committee on Sustainable Development will hold a hearing in Paris, Thursday 29 November, on global warming and ecological disasters, in the framework of a report prepared by Alan Meale (United Kingdom, SOC).
26/11/2007 | President
“I am concerned about the arrests of opposition leaders in Moscow and St Petersburg over the weekend,” said PACE President René van der Linden. “Forceful police action of this kind, ahead of an election, is not appropriate.”
26/11/2007 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Chair of PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and rapporteur on the situation in the North Caucasus Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE) has expressed dismay at the abduction, during the night of 24 November, of Oleg Orlov, President of the Russian Human Rights NGO “Memorial”, and three journalists of Ren-TV. Dick Marty asked his fellow parliamentarians from the Russian Federation “to press the authorities to swiftly identify and punish the authors and instigators of this blatant act of intimidation against a highly respected human rights defender and the accompanying journalists”.
26/11/2007 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Speaking today at the 3rd plenary Assembly of the European Roma Travellers Forum, Ms Donka Banovic (Serbia, EPP/CD) member of PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population, declared:” Ever since the 1960s, the Assembly argued that Roma are in need of special protection. Roma are the largest European minority, but one that does not always fit into the definitions of national or linguistic minorities.