12/10/2005 | President
René van der Linden, speaking at the end of a two-day visit to London, said the Assembly expected the United Kingdom, like all other Council of Europe member states, to act in conformity with international human rights standards, in particular the European Convention on Human Rights. "States cannot cherry-pick from amongst their obligations: Britain, which has always led the way in promoting human rights, must be conscious of the example its actions set to the rest of the world,” he said. The Assembly would be paying close attention to the British government's anti-terrorism proposals, he warned.
12/10/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s Sub-Committee on Human Rights, meeting in Geneva today, invited its Chairman, Christos Pourgourides (Cyprus, EPP/CD) to express its full support for the peaceful “Day of Solidarity” with the families and friends of four missing opposition activists and journalists: Yuri Zakharenko, Victor Gonchar, Anatoly Krasovski and Dmitri Zavadski. Grassroots initiatives such as “We Remember”, “We Want to Know the Truth”, “Free Belarus”, and “Zubr” are calling on citizens in Belarus to show their solidarity by switching off their lights on Sunday 16 October at 8 pm and to place a candle in their window.
11/10/2005 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Parliamentarians from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia will join with women’s groups in the three countries, as well as experts from the UN, to discuss gender equality in the South Caucasus at a public hearing in Tbilisi (Georgia) on Friday 14 October 2005. “Not enough attention has been paid to the situation of women in the South Caucasus,” said Rosmarie Zapfl-Helbling (Switzerland, EPP/CD), Vice-Chairperson of the Assembly's Equal Opportunities Committee, which is organising the event in collaboration with the Parliament of Georgia. “This hearing – and the report which will flow from it – aims to highlight the difficult situation many women in the area face, and to push for gender equality to be made a priority.”
11/10/2005 | News
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) President René van der Linden will participate on 12 October in Brussels in a meeting on the “Prospects for an effective EU-Russia policy and dialogue”, organized by the Platform for Democracy and Prosperity in the European Parliament (Room A5H1). The meeting will be opened at 5 p.m. by Ari Vatanen, member of the European Parliament. Guest speakers include Grigory Yavlinsky, Leader of the Yabloko Party, Gerhard Lohan, Head of Unit, External Relations-European Commission, and Tanja Lokshina, from the Center Demos.
10/10/2005 | President
“The Council of Europe is rightly proud of its achievement in making a de facto death-penalty-free zone of its 46 members, but the fight is far from being over,” PACE President René van der Linden said today in a statement on the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty. "Belarus and Uzbekistan are the last executioners in the former Soviet space. The Uzbek authorities recently informed me that they are now ready to undertake serious steps towards the abolition of the death penalty. This move shall be supported by the Assembly,” he said.
07/10/2005 | News
PACE today called on the European Union to ensure that the current and any future reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) brings “a more efficient and fair system” which remunerates the non-economic services supplied by farmers. As examples of these services, the parliamentarians noted the protection of the environment and of animals, the maintenance of landscape and their contribution to the social and economic life of outlying regions. They also called for the setting up of a system of subsidies according to land area which also takes account of farmers’ assets and income so that small farms are given better protection.
07/10/2005 | News
The application of “accelerated asylum procedures” -the rapid processing of asylum claims- in Europe brings to light, according to PACE, many refugee and human rights concerns. At the end of a debate on the subject, the Assembly called on European governments to draw up overall guidelines that bring together best practices on accelerated asylum procedures. The parliamentarians said attention should be paid to particularly vulnerable groups, such as children or victims of torture or sexual violence or trafficking, who should not, a priori, be subjected to accelerated procedures.
07/10/2005 | News
PACE today called on the political representatives of the language communities in the Brussels-Capital region to give attention to ensuring effective bilingualism in emergency services in the region, bilingual staff in hospital receptions and a better welcome for Dutch-speaking patients. Adopting a report on language problems in access to health care in the Brussels-Capital region, following petitions from both Dutch and French-speakers, PACE said: "It is indispensable that there is satisfactory understanding between the patient and medical and nursing staff to avoid compromising the efficacy of medical care."
07/10/2005 | News
PACE President René van der Linden will be visiting London from 9 to 11 October 2005, where he will meet Foreign Office Minister Ian Pearson and officials to discuss issues related to the United Kingdom’s Presidency of the EU, including the European Commission's proposals for an EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, the European Neighbourhood Policy and an envisaged Memorandum of Understanding between the Council of Europe and the EU. He will also meet the Secretary General of the Muslim Council Sir Iqbal Sacranie and the Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality Sir Trevor Phillips to discuss recent initiatives in the United Kingdom, as well as the Assembly's forthcoming report on European Muslim communities confronted with extremism.
06/10/2005 | News
The democratic changes in Ukraine have demonstrated its commitment to European values, Ukraine’s parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn told PACE today. "At the end of 2004, Ukraine was on the brink of disintegration – our country could have been divided into East and West parts – yet today we have civil peace," he told parliamentarians. PACE resolutions on Ukraine were "an impartial mirror" of the situation there, he said, and were the basis of efforts to bring Ukraine fully into line with European democratic standards.
06/10/2005 | News
While appreciating and supporting the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) launched by the EU in order to strengthen democratic stability, security and well-being in several EU neighbouring countries, PACE called on the “25” to make sure that there is no duplication ofboth Organisations’ actions. According to the parliamentarians, the ultimate economic and political objectives of the ENP fall within the Council of Europe's areas of expertise: the rule of law, good governance, respect for human rights and promotion of good neighbourly relations. Following the proposals by the rapporteur (Luc Van den Brande, EPP/CD), PACE stressed its readiness to become a forum for an inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue with those countries covered by the ENP which are not Council of Europe member states.
06/10/2005 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
PACE today deplored the fact that most countries are unprepared to face bird flu as well as “the flagrant lack of medicines”, both vaccines and anti-viral medicines, which are one of the most effective ways of countering this pandemic. Following an urgent debate on ‘Europe and bird flu - preventive measures in the health field’, the parliamentarians underlined that among the 46 European members of the organisation, only a small number have set up an early warning system and taken preventive measures against the new virus.