14/05/2004 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
Paschal Mooney (Ireland, LDR), rapporteur on the Media of the Assembly’s Committee on Culture, Science and Education, will participate as a panellist in the World Congress of the International Press Institute in Warsaw from 17 to 18 May. He will join representatives from Unesco, the OSCE and the Organization of American States on Monday 17 May for a discussion on the theme: “holding member states of international governmental organisations to their press freedom commitments”.
14/05/2004 | Monitoring
Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC), co-rapporteur for the monitoring of Azerbaijan, makes on 19-20 May a fact-finding visit to the country to assess the state of Azerbaijan’s honouring of the obligations and commitments it undertook on joining the Council of Europe in 2001. In a January 2004 resolution, the Assembly said progress was “far from satisfactory”. Mr Gross will meet with the Azerbaijani authorities as well as representatives of opposition parties, human rights organisations and journalists.
14/05/2004 | Equality and Non-Discrimination
The Assembly’s Committee on Equal Opportunities will hold a parliamentary hearing on “a campaign to combat domestic violence in Europe” in Prague on 24 May, with the participation of the Czech authorities and NGOs. Jean-Guy Branger (France, EPP/CD) is preparing a report on the subject.
14/05/2004 | Monitoring
Josette Durrieu (France, SOC) and André Kvakkestad (Norway, EDG), co-rapporteurs on Moldova for the Assembly’s Monitoring Committee, make from 23 to 25 May a fact-finding visit to the country to assess the state of Moldova’s honouring of the commitments it made on joining the Council of Europe in 1995.
14/05/2004 | President
Assembly President Peter Schieder wrote to Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev welcoming the decision to pardon 363 prisoners, some of whom are considered as political prisoners by the Assembly.“As with the previous amnesty decrees, this is a step in the right direction, and brings Azerbaijan closer to fulfilling a key commitment it made on joining the Council of Europe three years ago,” wrote Mr Schieder. “The Assembly has stressed many times that there can be no political prisoners in a Council of Europe member state.”
13/05/2004 | Political Affairs and Democracy
Both Armenia and Azerbaijan are aware of the urgency of resolving their conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region due to its far-reaching negative humanitarian, political and economic consequences, said Political Affairs Committee rapporteur Terry Davis today. He was speaking following meetings in Strasbourg on 13 May with the Foreign Ministers of both countries and the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, who thanked him for his earlier visits to the region and his support. Mr Davis is preparing a report on the conflict for debate by the Assembly before the autumn.
12/05/2004 | Bureau
Assembly President Peter Schieder has sent a letter to Stéphane Valéri, President of the National Council of Monaco, informing him of the Assembly Bureau’s decision to grant the Monaco Parliament special guest status with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Monaco will therefore be able to occupy two seats in the Assembly from the summer plenary session (21-25 June 2004) onwards. The Bureau’s decision follows Opinion 250 (2004) on the Principality of Monaco’s application for membership of the Council of Europe, adopted by the Assembly on 27 April 2004.
10/05/2004 | President
“The Assembly strongly condemns yesterday’s bomb attack in Grozny in which the President of the Chechen Republic Akhmad Kadyrov was killed,” Assembly President Peter Schieder wrote today in a letter to Sergey Mironov, President of the Council of the Russian Federation, and to Duma President Boris Gryslov. He extended his condolences, on behalf of the Parliamentary Assembly, to the families of those who died in the attack.
10/05/2004 | President
More than 50 Speakers and presidents of parliament from across Europe, as well as the heads of some ten European parliamentary assemblies, gather in Strasbourg from 17 to 19 May 2004 for a parliamentary summit on the theme “Europe of citizens: parliaments and participation of citizens”.
07/05/2004 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
Paschal Mooney (Ireland, LDR), who is preparing a report on “the possible monopolisation of the electronic media and abuse of power in Italy” for the Parliamentary Assembly, today expressed his regret over the resignation of RAI Chairperson Lucia Annunziata. He also voiced his concern about the future of public service broadcasting in Italy. “It is unacceptable that the public service broadcaster in a democracy such as Italy should be an arena for political struggles," Mr Mooney said.
06/05/2004 | President
Assembly President Peter Schieder said today that he was devastated at the news from Tripoli that a court of law has sentenced to death a number of international medics - five of whom are Bulgarians and therefore nationals of a Council of Europe member State. “I hope that an appeal will be made and that the court ruling will be reversed. I do hope that goodwill will prevail in Tripoli, which has just reopened its dialogue with Europe,” he said.
06/05/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
On 13 May, the Assembly’s Sub-committee on Migration will take part in the second session of the Council of Europe’s political platform on migration, which aims to promote north-south, east-west dialogue as well as co-operation on migration aspects between countries of origin, transit and destination. The chosen theme is student mobility and co-development.