29/07/2004 | Monitoring
The Chairperson of the Assembly’s Monitoring Committee, Josette Durrieu, has condemned in the strongest terms recent attempts by the “authorities” in the Moldovan region of Transnistria to close schools and an orphanage. In a letter to the President of the Moldovan Parliament Eugenia Ostapciuc, Mrs Durrieu said she hoped this question could be resolved as soon as possible through dialogue and asked to be kept informed of latest developments.
19/07/2004 | News
The Council of Europe wishes to entrust transcription of the verbatim reports of the four annual part-sessions of the Parliamentary Assembly in English and French to an outside service-provider and is therefore calling for tenders. If the conditions of this tender suit you, you are welcome to submit your bid; your reply must be postmarked Friday 6 August 2004 at the latest.
08/07/2004 | Monitoring
Following this morning’s incidents in South Ossetia, the Assembly's co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Georgia have called on Russia to use its political and diplomatic influence to enable the region to enter into dialogue with the Georgian authorities. Speaking at a press conference at the end of a four-day visit to Tbilisi and Batumi, Matyas Eörsi (Hungary, LDR) and Evgeni Kirilov (Bulgaria, SOC) also said they firmly supported the Georgian government’s efforts to regain the country’s territorial integrity through peaceful means.
07/07/2004 | President
On hearing of the death of Austrian President Thomas Klestil, Parliamentary Assembly President Peter Schieder today expressed his profound sadness at the loss of a convinced European, totally committed to the process of European integration. He recalled that, when addressing the Parliamentary Assembly in January 2003, Mr Klestil had spelled out a vital and enduring end-goal for the consolidation of Europe, one which the Assembly – via its 600-plus parliamentarians – still endeavours to pursue: “At the very moment when Europe is on the verge of wiping out the divisions and dividing lines of the past, it seems to me more important than ever to promote dialogue on our common European future. This dialogue must be global, going beyond national or international institutions, and must involve civil society. In fact, I believe that our united Europe will endure only if it enjoys the participation and the ongoing confidence of all its citizens,” Mr Klestil had said. On behalf of the Parliamentary Assembly, Mr Schieder sent a letter of condolence to the widow of the Austrian President.
05/07/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have decided to join forces and adopted a common declaration of concern, made public today, on the case of Victor Gonchar, a prominent opposition politician who disappeared in Belarus.
05/07/2004 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
Edward O’Hara (United Kingdom, SOC), General Rapporteur on the Cultural Heritage of the Assembly’s Committee on Culture, Science and Education, visited from 12 to 14 July the site of the Rosia Montana gold mine, in the Apuseni mountains of western-central Romania, to assess whether plans to re-activate mining activities respect this archaeological site. He met representatives of Romanian authorities, the mine’s owners and NGOs opposed to the plan, and will report back to the committee with his conclusions after the summer.
05/07/2004 | Monitoring
Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC) and Andres Herkel (Estonia, EPP/CD), co-rapporteurs for the Assembly’s monitoring of Azerbaijan, made a fact-finding visit to the country from 4 to 9 August, focussing in particular on the issues listed by the Assembly in its most recent monitoring resolution, from January 2004, on the functioning of democratic institutions in Azerbaijan.
05/07/2004 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold (Switzerland, SOC), who is preparing a report on "The disappearance and murder of a great number of women and girls in Mexico" for the Committee on Equal Opportunities, is currently on a fact-finding visit in Mexico (9 - 13 August) at the invitation of the Mexican observer delegation to the Assembly. In a February 2004 motion, 54 Assembly members noted the apparent disappearance of many hundreds of young women from the cities of Ciudad Juárez, Tijuana and Chihuahua in the last ten years, possibly linked to sexual exploitation. Mrs Vermot-Mangold has requested to meet federal and regional authorities, prosecutors working on some of the cases and NGOs campaigning on the issue. Mrs Vermot-Mangold will give a press conference at the Mexican Senate on Friday 13 August at 12.30.
05/07/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Michael Hancock (United Kingdom, LDR), who is assessing the follow-up to the Assembly’s April 2003 recommendation on “Improving the lot of abandoned children in institutions” for the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, will visit Bulgaria from 24 to 27 August. Accompanied by Bulgarian Assembly member Darinka Stantcheva, he is due to visit a number of orphanages and day-care centres in Sofia as well as meeting government ministers and other authorities responsible for childrens’ matters and childrens’ NGOs.
05/07/2004 | Monitoring
Hanne Severinsen (Denmark, LDR) and Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD), co-rapporteurs for the Assembly’s monitoring of Ukraine, will make their next fact-finding visit to the country from 29 August to 1st September, focussing on the preparations for the forthcoming Presidential election on 31 October 2004, in particular the functioning of local and regional self-government within the election process and the independence of the media. They hope to visit the eastern regions of the country, notably Dniepropetrovsk and Donetsk.
05/07/2004 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC) and Tadeusz Iwiński (Poland, SOC) – who are preparing reports on, respectively, the political and the humanitarian aspects of the situation in the Chechen Republic – plan to visit the region in connection with the presidential election on 29 August 2004 in the framework of the preparation of their reports. The Assembly is provisionally due to debate both reports, together with a third by Rudolf Bindig (Germany, SOC) on the human rights situation in the Republic, during its October session (4-8 October 2004).
05/07/2004 | Monitoring
Miloš Budin (Italy, SOC) and Jonas Čekuolis (Lithuania, LDR), co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Serbia and Montenegro, will visit the country from 31 August to 2 September to prepare their report on the functioning of democratic institutions, possibly for debate during the Assembly’s October session (4-8 October 2004). This will be the Assembly’s first assessment of Serbia and Montenegro’s progress since it joined the Council of Europe in April 2003.