13/09/2006 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
French Senate President Christian Poncelet has called for the vicious circle of exclusion of the elderly to be broken and for an end to the social, physical and financial hardship they face. "While we are pleased to note that the French, like their European neighbours, are living longer, we also have to look at the other side of the coin: difficulty in paying pensions for demographic reasons, insecurity, inequality of status and treatment, unemployment among the elderly, inadequate provision for widows, and so forth," he said. Mr Poncelet was speaking at a conference in Paris on the situation of elderly persons in Europe, organised by PACE's Social Affairs Committee under the patronage of the French Senate.
13/09/2006 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
"Although its face has changed considerably over the past decade, prostitution is constantly on the increase in Europe. This situation is due to, among other things, the development of new forms of prostitution via the Internet, mobile phones or specialist clubs or agencies and, like it or not, a degree of blurring of moral standards", Sophie Jekeler, who chairs the non-profit association Le Nid (Belgium), today said at the opening of a hearing on prostitution held by the PACE's Committee on Equal Opportunities.
12/09/2006 | President
PACE President René van der Linden will visit Kazakhstan from 13 to 15 September 2006, during which he will focus on inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue, as well as promoting Council of Europe values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law at a series of high-level meetings. On Wednesday 13 September the President is due to address the Second Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Astana, on which occasion he will also hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of the main religions of Kazakhstan.
12/09/2006 | Session
A debate on the situation in the Balkans – with the participation of Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and Serbian President Boris Tadic – will be a highlight of PACE’s Autumn Session (2-6 October 2006). Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány will also address the Assembly. Topics due to be debated include implementation of the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights, the cultural situation of the Kurds, the establishment of a European remembrance centre for the victims of ethnic cleansing, and the need to reconcile work and family life.
11/09/2006 | President
"On this sad day, on behalf of the victims of 9/11 and of other atrocities since, I want to make an appeal on behalf of one neglected asset in the long battle against terrorism: human understanding," said PACE President René van der Linden, recalling the need to win hearts and minds. He also again called for this fight to be carried out "within the tried and tested framework of international and human rights law - or it will not make us safer".
11/09/2006 | Election observation
The parliamentary elections in Montenegro on 10 September were held largely in line with OSCE commitments and Council of Europe standards for democratic elections. However a number of reappearing challenges remain to be addressed, concluded the International Election Observation Mission in a statement in Podgorica today. Some 200 observers from 41 countries monitored the vote and the count.
11/09/2006 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
A conference on the situation of elderly persons in Europe, taking place in the French Senate in Paris on Wednesday 13 September, will deal with the aspirations and rights of the elderly on the one hand and the elderly under threat of inequalities and exclusion on the other. Organised by the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee of the PACE under the patronage of the French Senate, the conference will be opened by Christian Poncelet, President of the Senate and Bernard Schreiner, Chair of the French delegation to PACE. It will bring together parliamentarians from the 46 Council of Europe member states and government and NGO experts.
08/09/2006 | News
“Europe and the world cannot afford a clash of civilisations,” Council of Europe Parliamentary (PACE) President René van der Linden said today in his concluding remarks at an international conference on inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue in Nizhniy Novgorod (7 and 8 September). Fundamental human values and mutual understanding being the cornerstones of the Council of Europe, it was important for the 46-nation organisation to engage in a dialogue with religions on specific issues of common interest, he said.
08/09/2006 | Political Affairs and Democracy
The crisis in Lebanon, the ongoing violence in Iraq and the situation in Gaza are among issues to be discussed at a hearing on the situation in the Middle East organised by the Political Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) in Gaziantep, Turkey, on Tuesday 12 September 2006. Parliamentarians from Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian Legislative Council are expected to attend, and legislators from Lebanon and Syria have also been invited.
07/09/2006 | President
Reacting to yesterday’s statement admitting the existence of secret CIA prisons, PACE President René van der Linden said today that such methods would, in the long term, make us less safe, not more. “Kidnapping people and torturing them in secret - however tempting the short-term gain may appear to be - is what criminals do, not democratic governments. In the long term, such practices create more terrorists and undermine the values we are fighting for. Europe will have no part in such a degrading system.” The admission had vindicated the the work of PACE and its rapporteur Dick Marty, the President said.
07/09/2006 | President
In his speech at an international conference on inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue in Nizhniy Novgorod (7 and 8 September) Council of Europe Parliamentary (PACE) President René van der Linden today called for churches and other confessional organisations to receive an official status with the Council of Europe. “There is absolutely no reason why they should not officially have a status similar to that which has been granted to non-governmental organisations, taking into account their specificities,” he said.
07/09/2006 | News
Sports ministers of Council of Europe member states, parliamentarians and representatives of UEFA, FIFA and professional federations, leagues and clubs from all over Greater Europe will take part in a “Play Fair with Sport” conference organised by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) and UEFA on 29 September in Strasbourg.