16/04/2004 | Political Affairs and Democracy
On 19 April, the Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee holds an inter-parliamentary forum on transatlantic dialogue, organised jointly with the United Kingdom delegation to the Assembly. Themes to be discussed include “common action and burden-sharing in the management of international crises” and “rebuilding transatlantic confidence”. Democrat and Republican members of the US Congress will attend the forum, which will be opened by British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell and the head of the British delegation to the Assembly Tony Lloyd. The conclusions of the forum will be used by Claudio Azzolini (Italy, EPP/CD) to prepare a report on “relations between Europe and the United States”.
16/04/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Assembly’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights is due to finalise on 21 April its opinion on draft protocol No. 14 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which amends the control system of the convention to enable the Court to cope with a massively increased workload. The draft protocol proposes the creation of more judges, allowing single judges to declare inadmissible or strike out cases, and extending the term of office of judges to a single, non-renewable nine-year term as well as allowing the Court to declare inadmissible any application where “the applicant has not suffered a significant disadvantage”. Also on the agenda are the committee’s latest moves to promote abolition of the death penalty in the United States, a Council of Europe observer state.
16/04/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Abdülkadir Ateş (Turkey, SOC), who is preparing the annual report on “the OECD and the world economy” for the Assembly’s Committee on Economic Affairs and Development, visits on 23 April the organisation’s headquarters for briefings with senior officials. The report is due to be debated by the Enlarged Assembly – involving parliamentarians from OECD countries not in the Council of Europe – during the Assembly’s October 2004 session.
16/04/2004 | President
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly President Peter Schieder made the following statement today: “Cyprus is approaching a crucial moment in its history. On 24 April 2004, Cypriots are invited to vote on the Annan Plan in simultaneous referenda. A “Yes” vote in both communities will put an end to the division of the island and bring a united Cyprus into the European Union. A victory for the “Noes” in either part of Cyprus, or a postponement of the referendum, will mean that only the Greek Cypriots join the EU on 1 May. The news from Cyprus is conflicting.
14/04/2004 | President
On 13 April, President Peter Schieder wrote to the Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Arthur Baghdasaryan, asking for detailed information on recent events in Armenia, including the disruption of a regular session of parliament. In his letter he expressed great concern over arrests of opposition leaders, reportedly including a member of the Armenian delegation to the Assembly, Shavarsh Kocharyan, and people attending opposition rallies, as well as over alleged ill-treatment of the media. Armenia has recently made considerable efforts to honour the obligations and commitments it undertook on joining the Council of Europe. But you are also aware of our concerns about the remaining shortcomings and the Assembly’s decision in January this year not to end the current monitoring procedure until further progress has been made in this respect, Peter Schieder says in his letter.
08/04/2004 | News
Disappeared persons and the persecution of the press in Belarus, the honouring of commitments by Turkey and Albania, and Monaco's application for membership of the Council of Europe top the agenda of the Assembly’s spring session (Strasbourg, 26-30 April 2004). Reports on the strengthening of the United Nations, on euthanasia and on the situation of European prisons and pre-trial detention centres will also be debated. There have been requests for urgent debates on the situation in Kosovo and the new Dutch policy on asylum-seekers. Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader (Tuesday 27), Netherlands Prime Minister Peter Balkenende and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and Chairman of the Committee of Ministers Bernard Bot (Wednesday 28), and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev (Thursday 29) are among guest speakers.
05/04/2004 | President
Assembly President Peter Schieder today called on all Cypriots to seize the historic opportunity of the 24 April referendum to reunite the divided island of Cyprus before it joins the EU on 1 May. He urged the leaders of both communities, as well as the Greek and Turkish governments, to act with the utmost responsibility and rally all Cypriots in support of the revised UN plan. Peter Schieder expressed his full support for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s efforts. “This is an example of the important role the UN can play in conflict resolution,” he said.
02/04/2004 | Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Michael Hancock (United Kingdom, SOC) visits Romania to assess progress in implementing the recommendations in his report on “improving the lot of abandoned children in institutions”. The Assembly’s recommendation, adopted in April 2003, calls for the closure of large, isolated or dilapidated childrens’ institutions and the restoration of childrens’ family ties where possible. Mr Hancock will meet Romanian Health Minister Ovidiu Brînzan as well as other authorities concerned with childrens’ rights.
02/04/2004 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men today approved a report on “domestic slavery: servitude, au pairs and mail-order brides” by Giuseppe Gaburro (Italy, EPP/CD. According to the text, the Council of Europe must have zero tolerance for slavery and should elaborate a charter of rights for domestic workers.
02/04/2004 | Legal Affairs and Human Rights
The Assembly’s Sub-Committee on the election of judges to the European Court of Human Rights held interviews with candidates for judge in respect of Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Portugal and Sweden. Based on the interviews and assessments of CVs, the sub-committee will make recommendations to assist the Assembly in its task of electing each judge to the Court from a list of three candidates submitted by the Contracting State concerned. New elections, due to take place during the Assembly’s April session, are necessary since the six-year term of office of half the judges in the Court comes to an end in November 2004
02/04/2004 | Bureau
The Assembly’s Bureau will hold an exchange of views with Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül and will hear a welcome address by the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Bülent Arınç. Items on the agenda include updating the draft agenda of the Assembly’s April session (26-30 April 2004), the case of Bulgarian medical staff detained in Libya, the request to monitor Latvia, the Assembly’s observation of elections in Russia and Georgia and preparations for the European Conference of Presidents of Parliaments (17-19 May 2004).
02/04/2004 | News
The Assembly’s Sub-Committee on the Middle East, in co-operation with the Turkish delegation to the Assembly, held a colloquy on dialogue between Europe and the Middle East with the participation of academics, politicians and ambassadors from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, the United States, Russia, Syria and Jordan. Themes for discussion included the Middle East in international politics and promoting democracy as a way to increase stability.