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.
27/01/2005 | News
PACE today offered to engage in a series of comprehensive dialogues with the US Congress on how best to promote human rights around the world, and called on it to consider applying for observer status with the Assembly. The parliamentarians said sixty years of positive transatlantic partnership had brought irreplaceable benefits in terms of security and prosperity and that the recent deterioration in relations was bad for the world. It is time for the Council of Europe and the US to “reaffirm their shared ideals”, said the Assembly.
27/01/2005 | News
While expressing its immense sadness at the tragic death of 280,000 people and its profound compassion for the families and friends of victims of the tsunami disaster, PACE today insisted that the protection of children left parentless by the disaster must be one of the humanitarian agencies’ priorities. Recalling UNICEF estimates, which put the number of children affected by the disaster at 1.5 million, the PACE said that the international community “must act to prevent these children from becoming targets for trafficking, physical violence, sexual exploitation or recruitment by sects”. In this connection, the Assembly supported UNICEF’s proposal that such children should be registered as rapidly as possible, and action taken to prevent trafficking.
27/01/2005 | News
A proposal to establish a "European remembrance centre for victims of forced population movements and ethnic cleansing" under Council of Europe auspices failed to gain the support of the Assembly this afternoon after an intense debate. Although a simple majority was in favour, the two-thirds majority required under the Rules to adopt recommendations was not achieved. Earlier, the head of the French parliamentary delegation Bernard Schreiner spoke against the creation of the centre as put forward in the report on the grounds that "it treated on the same level two very different tragedies: deportations to death camps and forced population movements". However, on Wednesday the Assembly called on European governments to decide at the Third Summit in May on the creation "in principle" of such a centre.
27/01/2005 | News
The Assembly today adopted opinions on two draft Council of Europe Conventions currently under preparation: the Draft Convention on money laundering, the financing of terrorism search, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds of crime and the Draft Convention on the prevention of terrorism. While welcoming the preparation of the texts, the Assembly proposed a series of recommendations to the Committee of Ministers intended to reinforce the content and application of the provisions.