23/05/2005 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Measures should be taken to change the image of “clandestine” migrants, a term associated with crime and never with the need for employment, according to participants at the 2nd Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Forum on Migration which concluded yesterday in Rome. Discussing “facts and myths about migration”, participants – including parliamentarians from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan and Egypt – heard that migrants were often meeting a demand for labour in host countries.
23/05/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights meeting in Limassol (Cyprus) on 23 and 24 May had an exchange of views with the Cypriot authorities. Among the participants were Demetris Christofias, President of the House of Representatives, Kypros Chrysostomides, Government Spokesman as well as representatives of the Standing Committee on Legal affairs and Human Rights of the House of Representatives. Tomorrow, the Committee will hold a parliamentary hearing on enforced disappearances. It will hear testimony from the relatives of missing persons from the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, as well as from the Chechen Republic. The hearing will also focus on enforced disappearances in Latin America and in the North Caucasus.
23/05/2005 | President
In a letter sent today to the Presidents of the two Chambers of the Romanian Parliament, Nicolae Vacaroiu and Adrian Nastase, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) President René van der Linden expressed, on behalf of PACE, his joy and immense relief at the release of Marie-Jeanne Ion and Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, journalist and cameramen respectively with the Prima TV channel, Eduard Ovidiu Ohanesian of the daily newspaper România Liberă and their guide, who had been held hostage in Iraq since 28 March. “I would pay tribute to their fortitude and assure them and their families that we are delighted at their release. This excellent piece of news concerning their release also provides a new sign of hope as regards the fate of the French Journalist Florence Aubenas and her assistant Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, who have been held in Iraq for 138 days now. I should like to take this opportunity to reiterate our Assembly’s appeal for their immediate release. Our appeal is also a call to universal solidarity, because the abduction of journalists is an assault on the freedom of expression and information, which assault we must combat with all our strength.”
17/05/2005 | News
Speaking at the Council of Europe’s Summit of Heads of State and Government in Warsaw today, Parliamentary Assembly President (PACE) René van der Linden called for much stronger co-operation with international organisations, in particular with the European Union. In this context he thanked Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker for having agreed to prepare a political report on the relations between the EU and the Council of Europe which he said “will certainly provide us with the necessary roadmap”. “
16/05/2005 | News
Speaking in Warsaw at the opening of the Third Council of Europe Summit of Heads of State and Government, Parliamentary Assembly President René van der Linden today called for more intercultural and inter-religious dialogue. “Fighting terrorism must be our priority. However, I do not believe in a clash of civilizations. There is only a clash between human civilization and barbarity. Hence the need for a much increased intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, building on our work in fighting racism, anti-semitism and xenophobia. The Council of Europe and its Assembly, with more than 630 directly elected representatives of the people, is the ideal forum for this dialogue”, Mr van der Linden said.
13/05/2005 | News
Speaking on the eve of the Third Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe, to take place in Warsaw on 16 and 17 May, Parliamentary Assembly President René van der Linden stressed that the Council’s unique position as the only pan-European Organisation should be fully exploited. “For the first time in history, leaders of all 46 European nations will meet on an equal footing to address the challenges facing our continent today,” he said. René van der Linden drew attention to some of the key issues he will put to the European Heads of State and Government in Warsaw: There must be no new dividing lines in Europe. The European Union should not duplicate our work but use the experience, institutions and instruments of the Council of Europe; We should intensify inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue, using the Council of Europe as the best-placed forum; The parliamentary dimension should be reinforced, as should co-operation with civil society, to bring the organisation closer to our citizens; The European Convention on Human Rights is in serious danger because of the enormous and ever-growing backlog of cases before the European Court of Human Rights.
11/05/2005 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
Journalists faced with terrorist atrocities should be free to report them objectively, without restriction by the state, but they should also “avoid a race for sensational news and images which plays into the hands of terrorists”, PACE’s Culture Committee said in a draft recommendation unanimously adopted today. In particular they should “refrain from disseminating shocking pictures or images of terrorist acts which violate the privacy and human dignity of victims or contribute to the terrorising effect of such acts”, the parliamentarians said. The report, by Josef Jařab (Czech Republic, LDR), is due for debate at the Assembly’s Summer plenary session (20-24 June 2005).
11/05/2005 | News
The EU and the Council of Europe “should work together where their goals are identical” said European Education and Culture Commissioner Ján Figel today, speaking during an exchange of views with PACE’s Culture Committee. “We are moving in the same space, now it is important that we move in the same direction,” he said, raising the possibility of “joint reports” in complementary areas. He also pointed out that education and culture were permanent components of the EU’s near neighbourhood policy – affecting some non-EU members of the Council of Europe – and offered the Commission’s assistance for concrete joint projects which did not duplicate existing ones.
10/05/2005 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
PACE's Culture Committee will hold an exchange of views with EU Education and Culture Commissioner Ján Figel and meets a delegation from its sister committee in the European Parliament during its meeting in Strasbourg on 11 May. It is also due to approve a report by Josef Jařab (Czech Republic, LDR) on Media and Terrorism.
04/05/2005 | News
During his official visit to Rome on 3 and 4 May, PACE President René van der Linden discussed the preparations for the Council of Europe Summit of Heads of State and Government in Warsaw on 16 and 17 May, in particular relations between the Council of Europe and the EU. The President's interlocutors agreed that the EU should make use of the Council of Europe's mechanisms and experience. René van der Linden expressed concern about certain initiatives of the EU Commission, such as the Human Rights Agency which could lead to double standards and new dividing lines at the expense of the tax-payer. René van der Linden, accompanied by Claudio Azzolini, leader of the Italian parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe, met the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Pier Ferdinando Casini, the Foreign Minister, Gianfranco Fini, the Minister for the Cultural Heritage, Rocco Buttiglione, the Deputy Speaker of the Senate, Lamberto Dini, the Chair of the Senate Committee on EU Policy, Mario Greco, the Chair of the Senate's Foreign Affairs Committee, Fiorello Provera, and the Chancellor of the Gregorian University, Father Ghirlanda.
04/05/2005 | President
During his official visit to Rome on 3 and 4 May, PACE President René van der Linden discussed the preparations for the Council of Europe Summit of Heads of State and Government in Warsaw on 16 and 17 May, in particular relations between the Council of Europe and the EU. The President's interlocutors agreed that the EU should make use of the Council of Europe's mechanisms and experience. René van der Linden expressed concern about certain initiatives of the EU Commission, such as the Human Rights Agency which could lead to double standards and new dividing lines at the expense of the tax-payer. René van der Linden, accompanied by Claudio Azzolini, leader of the Italian parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe, met the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Pier Ferdinando Casini, the Foreign Minister, Gianfranco Fini, the Minister for Cultural Heritage, Rocco Buttiglione, the Deputy Speaker of the Senate, Lamberto Dini, the Chair of the Senate Committee on EU Policy, Mario Greco, the Chair of the Senate's Foreign Affairs Committee, Fiorello Provera, and the Chancellor of the Gregorian University, Father Ghirlanda.
03/05/2005 | President
"It is often said that the freedom of the media – and freedom of expression in general – are the oxygen of democracy. If that is true, democracy in some parts of Europe continues to have respiratory difficulties. These range from an occasional lack of breath in some countries to persistent near-suffocation in others," PACE President René van der Linden said today on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day. He called on all Council of Europe states to refrain from adopting unnecessary restrictions on the free flow of information under cover of the fight against terrorism and to respect Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. "Security-motivated censorship will only serve the cause of the terrorists," he said.