01/10/2007 | Session
"Cooperation is an important key to success in migration management. Migration as a transnational phenomenon cannot be managed effectively in the long term through national measures alone, so inter-state cooperation is essential", today said Brunson McKinley, Director General of International Organization for Migration, adressing the Assembly. "IOM strongly supports bilateral and multilateral initiatives geared towards creating broader consensus on migration practices, approaches and systems", he said.
01/10/2007 | President
“Ukrainians have spoken,” said PACE President René van der Linden, following yesterday’s parliamentary election in the country. “Now it is up to the politicians to live up to their hopes. Ukrainians have given their leaders a third chance to end the seemingly permanent political crisis in the country and move forward with much-needed reforms. I urge them to take it. This is what the people are demanding, and this is what they deserve.”
01/10/2007 | Session
Addressing the Assembly today, Filip Vujanovic, President of Montenegro, said Council of Europe membership has given his country "a fresh and highly important encouragement for further integration into European structures." He declared: "Montenegro is willing to fulfill all assumed commitments in a diligent and persistent manner for the benefit of our citizens and the region as a whole."
01/10/2007 | President
"If human rights are a real priority for member States – and not just an opportunity for political posturing – then they have to put their money where their mouths are; and most importantly, they have to put it where it will do the most good, into the Council of Europe", René van der Linden today said in Strasbourg at the opening of the PACE Automn Session 2007. "I am convinced that member States seriously undervalue our activities and potential", he added.
01/10/2007 | Election observation
The 30 September parliamentary elections in Ukraine were conducted mostly in line with international commitments and standards for democratic elections and confirm an open and competitive environment for the conduct of election processes, the OSCE-led International Election Observation Mission concluded in a joint preliminary statement today.
01/10/2007 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
What is the added value of e-learning? How are the citizens of the Council of Europe member states to be guaranteed access to it? These questions will be central to the first electronic conference which PACE Committee on Culture, Science and Education is to organise on 1 October in Strasbourg .
01/10/2007 | Session
The Assembly today adopted its order for the Autumn 2007 Session (Strasbourg, 1-5 October). The newly-elected Turkish President Abdullah Gül will address the PACE on 3 October. Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and all Russia (2 October), Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic (1 October) and Serb Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica (2 October) are also due to address the Assembly. The parliametarians decided not to hold an urgent debate on "The political implications of the proposed US/NATO rocket shield".
01/10/2007 | President
“The killing of civilians and armed guards in an ambush by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Sirnak province near the Iraq border is to be outrightly condemned,” said PACE President René van der Linden, speaking from Strasbourg on the eve of the October Parliamentary Assembly session. “This terrorist attack is not just an attack on Turkey and democracy,” he said. “It is an attack on stability in the border region of Turkey and Iraq.” He raised particular concern at the risk of escalation of tension in the region as a result of the attack.
01/10/2007 | Bureau
The Bureau of PACE, meeting in Strasbourg at the beginning of the Autumn plenary session, has called on the military Junta in Myanmar (Burma) to put an immediate end to the brutal crackdown on the peaceful protests, led by Buddhist monks, which have swept across the country. "To repress the peaceful expression of dissent with such violence and on such a disproportionate scale is a flagrant and massive violation of human rights," the Bureau said in a statement.
19/09/2007 | Monitoring
“In a remarkably short time, Georgia has made stunning progress in carrying out substantial economic, judicial and state reforms. It has laid the foundations that should allow Georgia to become a prosperous liberal market economy and a fully-fledged democracy governed by human rights and the rule of law. Georgia has set an example for the whole region and beyond”, said Matyas Eorsi (Hungary, ALDE) and Kastriot Islami (Albania, SOC), co-rapporteurs of the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly, sharing their preliminary impressions at a press conference in Tbilisi on 13 September 2007.
18/09/2007 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee is organising two exchanges of views on the disappearance of newborn babies and child and teenage suicide on 20 September in Paris. With an eye to a new report by Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold (Switzerland, SOC) on the disappearance of newborn babies for illegal adoption in Europe, the participants will be hearing from David Olivier Kaminski, a lawyer who appeared in the case of alleged trafficking in Bulgarian babies in France, and Alina Radu, a Moldovan journalist who will report on her experience of the problem in her country.
07/09/2007 | News
National parliamentarians and their equivalents from regional parliaments across Europe will gather in Strasbourg on 12 September for a major international conference on “Representative democracy, European affairs and active citizenship”.