26/04/2005 | News
PACE today reacted to Europe’s vulnerability in the matter of energy by calling on European governments to introduce policies which would permit energy savings and a gradual transition to alternative energy sources, replacing fossil fuels, reserves of which are falling rapidly. They also asked those concerned to review their nuclear energy policies. At the end of a general debate, based on reports on Europe’s growing energy vulnerability (Radu-Mircea Berceanu, Romania, SOC) and energy systems and the environment (Bill Etherington, United Kingdom, SOC), the parliamentarians called on member states to act without delay to reduce the environmental impact of the production, transport and use of energy, by developing renewable energy sources, supporting research and development in the field of nuclear fusion, and including environmental costs in energy charges. Claude Mandil, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), who took part in the debate, emphasised that “we can and must do something at once, by making massive energy savings, concentrating on research and development, and promoting international co-operation”.
26/04/2005 | News
“Europe is our choice, the goal and the future. This cannot be just a segment of political rhetoric, but a truthful, vital long-term interest of both Serbia and Montenegro”, Svetozar Marovic, President of Serbia and Montenegro, today said addressing the Assembly. “Serbia and Montenegro will continue cooperating fully with the international institutions, especially with the Hague Tribunal. No responsible person in Serbia and Montenegro harbors illusion that we can progress without such co-operation”, M. Marovic said. Regarding the future of Kosovo, he expressed a clear message: “Kosovo must be multiethnic, Kosovo must be European, Kosovo must be open and safe for all its citizens, with the minorities carefully protected”.
25/04/2005 | News
The head of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly, Konstantin Kosachev, has been elected a PACE Vice-President. Mr Kosachev, who belongs to the European Democrat Group, is a member of the Political Affairs and Monitoring Committees.
25/04/2005 | News
Ernest Benach, President of the Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies (CALRE) and Speaker of the Parliament of Catalonia (Spain), today informed the PACE Committee on Local and Regional Affairs of his wish to start up a permanent dialogue with the committee and with PACE as a whole. As a first step towards cooperation, he asked the committee members to promote discussions in the Council of Europe member states on a few basic principles concerning the role of assemblies in devolution, democracy and self-government.
25/04/2005 | News
After a minute of silence in memory of Pope John-Paul II and Prince Rainier of Monaco, PACE President René van der Linden very warmly congratulated Pope Benedict XVI on his election. He expressed his support for the French journalist Florence Aubenas and her guide and for the three Romanian journalists, all of whom are missing and held hostage in Iraq, calling for their speedy release and recalling that freedom of the press and freedom of expression lie at the heart of the Council of Europe’s mission. He also appealed to PACE members, all of whom are members of national parliaments, to ensure that their leaders attend the Summit and, most of all, commit themselves fully to implementing its decisions. “We have to make further use of our double mandate, here in PACE and at home in our national Parliaments”, he said.
25/04/2005 | News
PACE’s Monitoring Committee, meeting during the plenary session, today expressed “deep concern” at the political climate in Azerbaijan ahead of parliamentary elections. “Some of the basic pre-conditions for holding free and fair elections… are not met,” the parliamentarians said in a declaration. “The opposition has almost no means of conveying its message to the electorate.” The committee also said that the situation “hardly resembled” that of Georgia and Ukraine, and that speculation on both sides with the word “revolution” could lead to unforeseen consequences.
25/04/2005 | News
There are “undeniable positive changes” in the situation of children abandoned in institutions, the Assembly said today in a resolution, but in some post-communist democracies the situation was still disturbing. Rapporteur Mike Hancock (United Kingdom, LDR), who had investigated the follow-up to his 2003 report, said that although his report focused on Romania and Bulgaria, no Council of Europe member state was beyond criticism. “The richest ingredient we can give our children is love, yet some of these children go their whole lives without experiencing it,” he said.
23/04/2005 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
“In the past few months, arrests have been made in some of the cases of ‘feminicide’ in Ciudad Juarez (Mexico), including in ‘cold’ cases going back several years, thanks to a co-ordinated prosecutorial effort on state and federal level. However, too many cases remain unsolved,” the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s Rapporteur on the murder and disappearance of women and girls in Mexico, Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, said today. “It is urgent to move from audit to action in order to end the climate of impunity for gender-based violence still prevalent in the region.” The Socialist parliamentarian from Switzerland has just completed her second, five-day fact-finding visit to Mexico City and Chihuahua, where she met with victims’ families, fellow parliamentarians on federal and state level, prosecutors, NGOs, the Governor and Mayor of Chihuahua and the new Head of the State Women’s Institute, among others.
21/04/2005 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Mikhail Margelov (Russia, EDG), PACE rapporteur on the situation in the Middle East, is visiting Amman, Ramallah, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv from 17 to 22 April, where he is due to meet the King of Jordan and members of the Jordanian parliament, Palestinian ministers and Israeli government officials.
21/04/2005 | President
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU Commissioner responsible for External Relations and the European Neighbourhood Policy, meeting PACE President René van der Linden yesterday in Brussels, stressed that,the EU should make use of the Council of Europe’s experience and mechanisms. With a view to the Council of Europe Summit of Heads of State and Government, she said that this applied in particular to the EU’s neighbourhood policy. Moreover, preparatory work for the EU’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights could already start. Talks with European Parliament President Josep Borrell focused on closer co-operation between PACE and the EP, as well as their respective committees, on topics of common interest. Particular reference was made to inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue and violence against women, including domestic violence. They agreed that there was no need to re-invent mechanisms which have proven their efficiency, such as the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture.
19/04/2005 | President
“I would like to congratulate Pope Benedict XVI most warmly on his election. I trust he will follow the example of John Paul II in his pilgrimage for peace. I am confident that the new pontiff will be a firm ally of the Council of Europe in promoting the core values of our Organisation: human rights, democracy and the rule of law. I further hope that the new Pontiff will continue to build bridges to other religions,” Parliamentary Asssembly President René van der Linden said today.
15/04/2005 | President
In his statement in St Petersburg today at the Conference dedicated to the 60th Anniversary of the Victory of the anti-Hitler coalition in World War-II, PACE President René van der Linden called on those CIS States outside the Council of Europe to subscribe fully to the ideals and principles the 46-member organisation cherishes. "The right to life is the ultimate human right and people must live in dignity. No human can take another human’s life. The tragedy of St Petersburg, Rotterdam, London, Leipzig, Lidice, Khatyn and of countless other cities and towns, large and small, should never again be relived," he concluded.