27/01/2006 | News
The natural tendency for companies to allocate their investments optimally “should be allowed to continue unhindered” since it will lead over time to increased trade, a rise in prosperity on all sides and a more unified and politically stable Europe, PACE said today following a debate. But in a resolution the parliamentarians said countries should “properly assist those affected” and seek to maintain essential aspects of Europe’s hard-fought-for social achievements.
27/01/2006 | News
Everyone has the right to a nationality, but what happens when a state, for example, divides into two new states? The Assembly today welcomed the draft Protocol on the avoidance of statelessness in relation to state succession which it regards as an essential instrument complementing the existing Conventions. It fully supported the objective of avoiding cases of statelessness by facilitating the acquisition of nationality and it generally subscribes to the provisions laid down therein. However, the Assembly recommended the introduction of several amendments to the draft instrument.
27/01/2006 | News
The economic rise of China can lead to major benefits for Europe and overall world stability and prosperity, according to PACE. In a resolution, the parliamentarians said reforms have begun in the country and Europe must support them. However, China also needs to make progress on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, the parliamentarians pointed out – areas which are of vital importance to lasting economic development. Here, Europe has a major role to play, not least through increased contacts via the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly.
26/01/2006 | Political Affairs and Democracy
In the run-up to the presidential election in Belarus on March 2006, the PACE today called on the Lukashenko regime to refrain from “obstructing the free and fair running of the electoral campaign”, and take “positive action to ensure that pluralist information can be provided”. At the end of an urgent debate, the Assembly deplored that freedom of expression is blatantly flouted, and noted that in the last two years “the situation has not improved but worsened”. It called on member states to give “immediate financial and if necessary logistical support to independent broadcasting to Belarus from abroad”.
26/01/2006 | News
"Our common aim is to establish a genuine partnership between the Council of Europe and the European Union, as two prominent organizations sharing the same values", today said the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Romania and Chairperson of the Committee of Ministers addressing the Assembly. Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu reminded taht "two distinct and mutually reinforcing processes have been unfolded to this purpose –a report by H.E. Jean-Claude Juncker, which the Heads of State and Government asked the Prime Minister of Luxembourg to prepare on a personal basis and the negotiation of a Memorandum of Understanding that would render operational the guidelines adopted by the Warsaw Summit".
26/01/2006 | News
At the end of a debate on the policy of return for failed asylum seekers in the Netherlands, a policy the Dutch authorities approved in 2004 for returning approximately 26,000 failed asylum seekers, the PACE considered that it broadly complies with the recommendations on return made by Council of Europe bodies. However, some features – also to be found in the policies of other countries, including Switzerland and the United Kingdom – raise concerns.
26/01/2006 | Elections
Strasbourg, 26.01.2006 – The elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council were conducted in a well-organised and democratic fashion, "better than seen in some Council of Europe member states", according to a nine-member delegation from the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly which observed the elections.
26/01/2006 | News
Everyone should be free to define themselves as a member of a cultural “nation”, irrespective of their citizenship, the Assembly said today following a debate on “the concept of nation”, based on a report by György Frunda (Romania, EPP/CD). At the same time, the parliamentarians said, Council of Europe member states should avoid defining themselves in exclusively ethnic terms, and should do their utmost to help their minorities, a source of enrichment, to flourish.
25/01/2006 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
While regretting that serious human rights violations still occur on a massive scale in the Chechen Republic, the Assembly today urged the Committee of Ministers (CM) “to confront its responsibilities in the face of one of the most serious human rights issues in any of the Council of Europe’s member states”. According to the parliamentarians, the lack of effective reaction by the Council’s executive body has the capacity to seriously threaten the credibility of the whole Organisation. .
25/01/2006 | News
Since October 2005, because of the persistent failure of the Verkhovna Rada to swear in the nine appointed judges, the Constitutional Court is unable to function. This delay is unacceptable in a State that claims to be governed by the rule of law. The Monitoring Committee recalls the Assembly’s Resolution 1466 (2005) adopted in October 2005 and its previous statement of 15 December 2005, and regrets that despite the repeated calls on the Verkhovna Rada and its leadership to renew the composition of the Constitutional Court without undue delay, the latter have gone unheeded.
25/01/2006 | News
Addressing the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly today, Romania's President, Traian Basescu, said that his country's transition to democracy, aided by the Council of Europe, had helped to pave the way for membership of the European Union. He also spoke of his strong support for the activities of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, particularly the creation of a Black Sea Euroregion, whose launch conference would take place in Romania in March.
25/01/2006 | Session
PACE today strongly condemned the massive human rights violations committed by totalitarian communist regimes and expressed sympathy, understanding and recognition for the victims of these crimes. The Assembly said these violations included individual and collective assassinations and executions, death in concentration camps, starvation, deportations, torture, slave labour and other forms of mass physical terror.