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.
06/09/2006 | Bureau
PACE Bureau called today on the Slovak government to take a firmer stand against the use of racist or xenophobic discourse in politics and in society, which contributes to a climate of violence by legitimising hatred and intolerance. Assembly members expressed great concern at the increase in xenophobic incidents in Slovakia during recent months and, in particular, the recent violent attack on a young ethnic-Hungarian woman.
06/09/2006 | News
The Bureau of PACE has said a flagrant denial of defence rights in the re-trial of Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor in Libya casts "serious doubts" on its outcome. In a statement adopted during a meeting in Paris today, the Bureau also said it was dismayed by the Libyan prosecutor’s call for the death penalty in the case and called for international expertise to be admitted to the re-trial. The medics are accused of deliberately infecting Libyan children with the AIDS virus.
06/09/2006 | Election observation
A nine-member PACE delegation, headed by Jean-Charles Gardetto (Monaco, EPP/CD), will observe the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Montenegro on Sunday 10 September 2006. The delegation, which will be in the country from 7 to 12 September, will assess whether the elections in Montenegro meet international – and in particular Council of Europe – standards for democratic elections.