06/06/2007 | Session
A second report by Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE) on secret detentions and transfers of detainees, and a special debate on intercultural and inter-religious dialogue – covering topics such as blasphemy and the dangers of creationism in education – are among highlights of the Parliamentary Assembly’s summer plenary session (25-29 June 2007). Invited speakers include Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering, ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte and the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. Also on the draft agenda: combating anti-Semitism, a first monitoring report concerning Monaco, and the image of women in advertising.
06/06/2007 | President
PACE President René van der Linden was in Lisbon on 8 June to meet Portuguese President of Parliament Jaime Gama and the Foreign Minister Luís Amado. Discussions focused on collaboration between the Council of Europe and the European Union – of which Portugal will assume the Presidency in July 2007 – as well as the question of intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, and co-operation in the Mediterranean basin.
05/06/2007 | President
“After more than five years, the US authorities are still failing to provide any semblance of justice for the alleged terrorists detained at Guantánamo Bay,” said PACE President René van der Linden today, following the US military court’s ruling that it lacked jurisdiction over the detainees. “The Military Commissions Act has been shown to be just as unworkable as the system it replaced,” continued President van der Linden. “By seeking to exclude legal safeguards provided by the US Constitution and international law, the US government is both flaunting justice and undermining the fight against terrorism.”
04/06/2007 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Following several months of additional investigation, Dick Marty (Switzerland, ALDE), rapporteur of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), is due to present his second report on “Alleged secret detentions and illegal inter-state transfers involving Council of Europe member states” to the Assembly's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in Paris on Friday 8 June 2007. The meeting is closed to the press, but if the report is approved by the committee, it will be made public on this occasion. Mr Marty will also give a press conference at 2 p.m.
04/06/2007 | President
“Europe squabbles while people drown,” PACE President René van der Linden said today when asked to comment on the 18 bodies found floating off the South Coast of Malta last Friday. “Europe is losing sight of its responsibilities,” he continued, referring to the other incident last week when 27 shipwrecked Africans spent 3 days clinging to tuna fish nets in the Mediterranean while states argues over responsibility for the shipwrecked people.
04/06/2007 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The Council of Europe campaign to combat domestic violence against women is helping to raise awareness, particularly thanks to the work of national parliaments, but parliamentarians now need to make greater efforts to change laws to protect women and to monitor their implementation, according to PACE’s rapporteur on the campaign José Mendes Bota (Portugal, EPP/CD).
03/06/2007 | Monitoring
The co-rapporteurs of PACE's Monitoring Committee today called on Ukraine’s political forces to come to an agreement on building democratic institutions, carrying out legal reform and fighting corruption, despite political infighting. Speaking at a press conference at the conclusion of an eight-day monitoring visit, Hanne Severinsen and Renate Wohlwend said they wanted to be able to recommend the lifting of monitoring but needed assurances from the Ukrainian authorities that they were “committed to engaging in serious, coherent and well-targeted reforms”. There were “positive signs”, they said, but “substantial concerns remained”.
01/06/2007 | President
Speaking at the International Conference on Pan-European Cooperation “Inter-Cultural and Inter-Religious Dialogue” in Saint-Petersburg on 1 June, René van der Linden stressed that neither Europe nor the wider world can afford to enter into a clash of civilisations. “Inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue is one of the most important issues of our times”, he said and reiterated his proposal to give an official status to churches with the Council of Europe. Mr van der Linden said he was confident that after the extended debate on inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue at the Assembly’s June session (25-29 June), parliamentarians would vote in favour of recommending a new status for religious bodies.
01/06/2007 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Tony Lloyd (United Kingdom, SOC), PACE Rapporteur on the Prosecution of offences falling within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), today welcomed the arrest by the Interior Ministries of the Republika Srpska and Serbia of Zdravko Tolimir, one of the remaining fugitive’s war criminals. Mr Lloyd noted that this arrest is an important step in the reconciliation process and demonstrates that, with the needed political will, fugitives can be found. “The arrest of Zdravko Tolimir is a very important step in the right direction” he said.
01/06/2007 | Prizes
The 2007 Europe Prize has been awarded to the German town of Nuremberg in Germany. The decision was taken unanimously by PACE's Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs meeting today in Paris. This Bavarian town developed fourteen twinnings throughout the world, nine of them in Europe, supported by ten twinning committees but also by numerous associations and volunteers. Nuremberg’s International Relations Office, which co-ordinates all twinning activities, estimated that more than 55,000 people had been involved in more than 5,000 twinning activities since 1991.
31/05/2007 | President
“The biggest challenge and the most important task for Europe in the next 10 to 15 years is the integration of Russia into European structures,” said PACE President René van der Linden today, addressing the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Saint Petersburg. “The success of the European continent cannot be guaranteed without a strong and profound partnership with Russia.” The President said that change in a power such as Russia would take more than a fortnight, and that “understanding and patience” was needed. However, he stressed that Russia must also fulfil its Council of Europe commitments, as all member states must do.
31/05/2007 | President
PACE President René van der Linden met yesterday the Speaker of the Russian State Duma Boris Gryzlov to discuss the importance of the Council of Europe for building closer relations between Russia and the rest of Europe, respect for fundamental freedoms in Russia and the relocation of the Bronze Soldier memorial in Tallinn. PACE President also this morning addressed the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), meeting to celebrate its 15th anniversary. He is due to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on 2 June.