22/02/2005 | President
René van der Linden today ended a visit to Paris, his first as PACE President, during which he discussed - among other issues - ways of ensuring the success of the forthcoming Third Summit of the Council of Europe (Warsaw, 16-17 May 2005). Accompanied by PACE Secretary General Bruno Haller, he met Senate President Christian Poncelet, National Assembly President Jean-Louis Debré, European Affairs Minister-Delegate Claudie Haigneré, the Chair of the Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee Edouard Balladur and the founding President of “Our Europe” Jacques Delors, among others.
18/02/2005 | Election observation
A PACE delegation visiting Moldova has voiced its concern at the lack of a clearly visible campaign just sixteen days before the parliamentary elections, due on 6 March 2005. "Without a visible campaign, ordinary citizens in Moldova will lack the information necessary to make an informed choice on election day. Vibrant election campaigns are an essential component of truly democratic elections," said the five-member delegation in a statement issued at the end of a visit to the country (16-18 February 2005).
15/02/2005 | President
On the eve of the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol, PACE President René van der Linden hailed this event as a crucial first step towards combating climate change. "PACE has made an important contribution towards its entry into force. 45 out of 46 Council of Europe member states are Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and 38 among them, including the Russian Federation, have already ratified the Protocol. Carbon dioxide from Council of Europe members that are also Parties to the Kyoto Protocol amounts to around half of global emissions. This figure illustrates the enormous responsibility that Council of Europe countries have to curb greenhouse gases which cause changes in the climate that are already being felt all over the world," he said.
04/02/2005 | Monitoring
Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC) and Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD), co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Azerbaijan, will make a fact-finding visit to the country from 10-13 February. As well as meeting President Aliyev, they are due to talk to representatives of the media, human rights NGOs, the opposition, election officials and senior judges. They will also meet oil company executives and the representatives of oil workers.
03/02/2005 | President
Following the announcement of the death of the Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, PACE President René van der Linden made the following statement: “I wish to express my deepest condolences to the family of Zurab Zhvania and to the people of Georgia, who have so suddenly and tragically lost one of the key architects of their country’s transition to democratic stability. Georgia has lost its Prime Minister at a time when his energy, political skill and commitment to European values would have been of crucial importance. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has lost a former member, and a very close friend.”
02/02/2005 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
Rosmarie Zapfl-Helbling (Switzerland, EPP/CD) meets the Dutch Immigration Minister and members of the Dutch Refugee Council to prepare her report on "The policy of return for failed asylum seekers in the Netherlands". She also visits an asylum centre in Utrecht.
28/01/2005 | News
While noting the lack of progress made in respect of the Lisbon Strategy of 2000, when EU member states pledged to make Europe the most competitive region in the world by 2010, the Assembly today put forward several measures intended to give new impetus to Europe's labour market: more stimulation of research, greater reward for initiative and entrepreneurship and increased labour market flexibility. Taking up the proposals made by rapporteur Anders G Högmark (Sweden, EPP/CD), the Assembly cited as examples a reduction in taxes on labour, a decentralisation of wage bargaining and more opportunities for part-time work. Members of the Assembly, who called for action on the aspects of unemployment specifically affecting women, also adopted a resolution on social cohesion and employment which advocates job quality combined with respect for the right to work within the meaning of the European Social Charter.
28/01/2005 | News
Following a debate on the last day of its plenary session in Strasbourg, PACE adopted new terms of reference for its ten committees. According to rapporteur Anne Brasseur (Luxembourg, LDR), the changes should help the Assembly keep pace with new political and institutional developments while taking account of recent changes in Assembly procedure and helping to ensure that committees do not duplicate each others’ work.
27/01/2005 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
At the proposal of its Sub-Committee on Human Rights, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly today approved the following declaration: “The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly is dismayed by the recent spate of new, grave human rights violations in the Chechen Republic. It is particularly shocked about the targeting of human rights defenders by acts of repression, in particular the abduction on 20 January 2005 of Makhmut Magomadov, and the raid on the same day by FSB officers of the Nizhny Novogorod office of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society."
27/01/2005 | News
PACE yesterday demanded over forty “essential” changes in the text of the new draft Council of Europe Convention on action against trafficking in human beings – to give greater protection to victims and make the treaty more binding – and warned that it might withdraw its support unless the most important are adopted. In a unanimous opinion, the parliamentarians said the current text had lost much of its force and ended up as "not very convincing".
27/01/2005 | News
The Assembly elected Dragoljub Popovic as the first judge of the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Serbia and Montenegro. Mr Popovic was born in 1951 and studied law at the Belgrade University and the Faculty of Comparative Law in Brussels. Between 1980 and 1998 he taught at the Law School of Belgrade Univrsity. He practiced as an attorney at law in Belgrade from 1998-2001 and was ambassador of Serbia and Montenegro to Switzerland from 2001-2004. He currently teaches Constitutional Law and Introduction to Comparative Law at the Business Law School of Belgrade.
27/01/2005 | News
"Real democracy is not just counting votes... it is a spirit, a culture, and the task of the Council of Europe is to spread this culture throughout our continent," said Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis, addressing PACE this morning. Giving an overview of the organisation's activities, he also called for urgent ratifications of Protocol No. 14 to improve the working methods and procedures of the European Court of Human Rights, informed the parliamentarians about preparations for the Third Summit and assured them that their proposals following yesterday's debate would be fully taken into account.