22/11/2004 | News
The second round of the presidential election in Ukraine on 21 November did not meet a considerable number of OSCE commitments, Council of Europe and other European standards for democratic elections. As in the first round, state executive authorities and the Central Election Commission displayed a lack of will to conduct a genuine democratic election process, concluded the International Election Observation Mission.
19/11/2004 | President
PACE President Peter Schieder today called on the Ukrainian authorities to ensure that the decisive second round of the presidential election on Sunday 21 November is in accordance with Council of Europe standards. The President in particular stressed that it was the responsibility of the Ukrainian authorities to remedy the shortcomings found by the International Election Observation Mission (IEOM) during the first round of the presidential election and take all appropriate measures to reduce the risk of fraud. A 20-member PACE delegation will observe the second round in the framework of an IEOM, composed of delegations from the Council of Europe, OSCE and NATO Parliamentary Assemblies, the European Parliament and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE-ODIHR).
18/11/2004 | News
The PACE Standing Committee met in Warsaw on Tuesday 23 November at the invitation of the Polish Parliament. The meeting was opened by PACE President Peter Schieder and the Speaker of the Sejm Jόzef Oleksy. The participants held an exchange of views with Polish Foreign Minister Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the 46-nation Organisation, which focused on the 3rd Summit of Heads and State and Government, which will be held in Warsaw under the Polish chairmanship on 16-17 May 2005. In the framework of the Council of Europe’s increased efforts to combat terrorism, the parliamentarians adopted a text on ‘combating terrorism through culture’.
18/11/2004 | Election observation
A 20-member delegation of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) will observe the second round of the presidential election to be held in Ukraine on 21 November 2004. The parliamentarians will arrive in Kyiv on 19 November to meet with the two candidates and the Chair of the Central Electoral Commission. On election day, they will be deployed in the capital and throughout the country. The observation will be carried out in the framework of an International Election Observation Mission (IEOM), composed of delegations of Council of Europe, OSCE and NATO Parliamentary Assemblies, the European Parliament and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE-ODIHR).
17/11/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The circumstances surrounding the arrest and prosecution of leading Yukos executives strongly suggest that they were “arbitrarily singled out” by the Russian authorities, according to PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee. The state's action went beyond the mere pursuit of justice to include such elements as “to weaken an outspoken political opponent, intimidate other wealthy individuals and regain control of strategic economic assets”, said the committee, adopting a report by Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (Germany, LDR) today in Paris. The report is due for plenary debate by the Assembly in 2005, possibly at its January session.
17/11/2004 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE’s Political Affairs Committee has called on the Parliament of Israel, which holds observer status with the Assembly, to facilitate the proper conduct of the forthcoming Palestinian presidential election, in particular the free movement of persons. Adopting a statement during a meeting in Paris, the committee also said the Assembly should observe the election. The coming period was “crucial for the Palestinian people”, the parliamentarians said.
16/11/2004 | Political Affairs and Democracy
PACE's Political Affairs Committee has spelled out a series of steps Armenia and Azerbaijan could take to fulfill their commitment to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict peacefully. But in a report adopted this week, the committee also expressed concern at the creation of "mono-ethnic areas which resemble the terrible concept of ethnic cleansing" and said displaced persons should be able to return to their homes safely and with dignity. The report may be discussed at the Assembly's January session.
15/11/2004 | President
"The Council of Europe is the guardian of what has been called 'democratic security'. This may be seen as a complement to military security, and I would say an equally essential pre-requisite for the continent’s freedom, stability and peace", PACE President Peter Schieder said addressing the 50th annual session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Venice today. He stressed that it was perhaps time to consider extending the death-penalty-free zone of the 46 Council of Europe member states to the whole North Atlantic area, which is supposed to be, after all, a community of shared values.
12/11/2004 | President
Assembly President Peter Schieder yesterday offered his condolences to the Palestinian people, “who have lost their historic leader”. He paid tribute to Yasser Arafat for his “unerring support for the Palestinian cause and for striving throughout his life to enable his people to exercise their fundamental rights, as recognised by the United Nations, and live on their land, in peace with their neighbours, in a Palestinian state.” He finally expressed the hope that, despite the current deadlock, Palestinian and Israeli political leaders will meet their responsibilities and that the peace process will resume.
12/11/2004 | Political Affairs and Democracy
“Yasser Arafat successfully ensured that the international community accepted the principle of an independent sovereign state of Palestine”, said the Chair of PACE’s Sub-Committee on the Middle East Lord Kilclooney. “A great memorial to his life would be the creation of a democratic Palestine.” He added: “Personally, I will always recall the warmth and courtesy which he extended to our committee members on our visits to his presidential compound in Ramallah.”
12/11/2004 | News
It is time for national parliaments in South-East Europe to take the lead in overseeing the Stability Pact, according to the head of the PACE delegation to a conference on the Pact’s efforts to fight organised crime in the region. Addressing the fifth conference of the Parliamentary Troika – which brings together the parliamentary bodies of the Council of Europe, OSCE and European Union to support and oversee the Pact – Tony Lloyd (United Kingdom, SOC) said: “Our conferences sometimes amounted to speaking about countries directly affected by the Pact, not with them.” He also called for more focused meetings on narrower subjects.
10/11/2004 | News
A seminar for senior legal advisers from the parliaments of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, organised at the initiative of PACE Secretary General Bruno Haller, concluded in Strasbourg yesterday with expressions of warm appreciation from all three delegations. The Assembly’s Director of Interparliamentary Relations Jan Kleijssen said the seminar – the first of its kind, which included briefings on monitoring procedures, ratification of Council of Europe treaties, human rights standards and the work of the Court – had been intended to “respond to practical needs” in a key area of parliamentary work, and pledged further assistance in the future.