04/03/2004 | Monitoring
Kimmo Sasi (Finland, EPP/CD) and Erik Jurgens (Netherlands, SOC) were designated by the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe to prepare a draft opinion on whether or not to open a monitoring procedure with regard to Latvia. They will visit the country in the course of March 2004.Their report will be submitted to the Committee at its next meeting in Strasbourg during the spring session (26-30 April). The decision of the committee doesn’t interfere with the post-monitoring dialogue established with Riga since January 2002.
03/03/2004 | Standing Committee
The Assembly’s Standing Committee, meeting in Paris on 2 March, has restored the voting rights of the Irish parliamentary delegation, suspended since the end of January 2004 on the grounds of its male-only composition. The decision was made following the inclusion of Ann Ormonde in the delegation. On 27 January the Assembly decided to bar the all-male Irish and Maltese parliamentary delegations from voting in the Assembly or any of its bodies until at least one woman is appointed. The credentials of both delegations were challenged on the first day of the session following new rules which require national delegations to have at least one representative of each sex. The voting rights of the Maltese delegation remain suspended.
03/03/2004 | Bureau
Meeting in Paris on 1 March, the Assembly's Bureau adopted a provisional agenda for the Assembly’s spring session (26-30 April 2004). Main items include an opinion on the Principality of Monaco's application for membership of the Council of Europe, disappeared persons in Belarus and euthanasia.
03/03/2004 | Monitoring
Over the last three years Turkey has clearly demonstrated its commitment and ability to fulfil its statutory obligations as a Council of Europe member state and the monitoring procedure under way since 1996 should therefore be closed, according to the Monitoring Committee of the Assembly. But the parliamentarians were also in favour of a “post-monitoring dialogue” with Turkey on a twelve-point list of outstanding issues, including a major reform of the 1982 constitution, further recognition of national minorities, continued efforts to combat violence against women, the fight against corruption and amendments to the electoral code.
02/03/2004 | Monitoring
Mady Delvaux-Stehres (Luxembourg, SOC) and Luc Van den Brande (Belgium, PPE/DC), co-rapporteurs on Turkey's honouring of its obligations to the Council of Europe, will be available to meet the press and present their report at 1 pm on Wednesday 3 March 2004, in the Council of Europe's Paris office (55, Av. Kléber, Paris, tel. 01 44 05 33 60). The Monitoring Committee of the Assembly is scheduled to approve a report on Turkey's honouring of its obligations to the Council of Europe in Paris the same day, when it will also decide whether or not to close the monitoring procedure, which started in 1996. The report may also be included on the Assembly's spring session agenda.
02/03/2004 | News
"You have been far more than an ante-chamber for the European Union – for those countries, you have provided a facility for training and practice, an indispensable arena for dialogue. And for those countries remaining outside the European Union your Assembly continues to be a vital forum. It is especially important that the EU's enlargement does not create a new dividing line within the continent, and the pan-European institutions have a key role to play here", Jean-Louis Debré, President of the French National Assembly, said this morning, addressing the Assembly's Standing Committee.
02/03/2004 | News
Debating the risk of chemical, biological or nuclear terrorism, the Assembly's Standing Committee today called on governments to take a number of measures relating to public health. It invited member states to inform and educate the public as regards the inherent dangers of bio-terrorism, to draw up an objective assessment of the potential sources of bio-terrorist danger and an inventory of dangerous and sensitive sites and to devise emergency intervention and public health relief plans in case of bio-terrorist attack. The parliamentarians also called for strengthened co-operation, particularly at European level. "The creation of a two-speed Europe in the area of public health and safety must be refused," they said.
01/03/2004 | Bureau
Mátyás Eörsi (Hungary, LDR), a member of the Assembly’s Bureau, departs today on a three-day fact-finding visit to Tripoli, Libya, where he will investigate a motion for a resolution alleging inhuman treatment of detained Bulgarian medical staff. Mr Eörsi will report back to the Bureau with any proposals for follow-up to the motion.
01/03/2004 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Both Armenia and Azerbaijan recognise the urgency of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and have declared their readiness to continue negotiations, said Terry Davis (United Kingdom, SOC) at the end of a five-day visit to the region. Mr Davis, who is preparing a report on “the conflict dealt with by the OSCE Minsk Conference” for debate by the Assembly before the autumn, met the presidents of both countries as well as senior government members.
27/02/2004 | President
Parliamentary Assembly President Peter Schieder today launched a pressing appeal for the abolition of the death penalty in Japan, following the death sentence passed on Shoko Asahara, the leader of a Japanese doomsday cult, and other members of the cult involved in the gas attack on a Tokyo subway in 1995. “The case for sparing Shoko Asahara’s life is neither easy nor a popular one to make. The Council of Europe is opposed to the death penalty in all its forms, even for the Tokyo subway killer. But human rights apply to every one of us, without exception,” Mr Schieder said.
27/02/2004 | Election observation
"The revolution has ended; the new government is now in place. The new authorities came to power promising firmly to establish pluralist democracy in Georgia. The forthcoming parliamentary elections are a crucial test of Georgia’s progress on the road to democracy and will, in large measure, define the relationship and nature of the dialogue between Georgia and the Council of Europe." Giving its conclusions at the end of a four-day “pre-election” visit to Georgia (25-28 February 2004), an Assembly delegation therefore expressed its great concern that the new authorities have not followed up on crucial recommendations it made after the last elections or that were outlined in the resolution adopted by the Assembly during its plenary session in Strasbourg in January 2004.
26/02/2004 | President
In a letter of condolence addressed today to the Speaker of the Parliament of "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", Assembly President Peter Schieder wrote: “I am deeply saddened to hear of the death of President Trajkovski this morning in what appears to have been a tragic accident. On behalf of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, I extend my condolences to his family and to the families of those others who died. The Macedonian people have lost a loyal servant, and a man who did much to maintain peace and the unity of his country.” President Trajkovski addressed the Assembly in Strasbourg twice (in June 2000 and June 2002). "The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" joined the Council of Europe in 1995.