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”.
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.
29/03/2004 | Monitoring
Kimmo Sasi (Finland, EPP/CD) and Erik Jurgens (Netherlands, SOC), who 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, visited the country from 29 to 30 March. 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.
29/03/2004 | Migration, International Protection and Economic Co-operation
At the end of the Euro-Mexican Forum on Migration, organised in Mexico on 29 and 30 March, the members of the Mexican Senate and the members of the Assembly Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population adopted the Sonora declaration. They agreed to submit new initiatives to deal with the situation of migrants. They regretted the lack of respect of human rights of migrants, an issue where insufficient efforts had been made to date. They also stressed the importance of attempting to protect migrants’ physical integrity and to prevent the death of migrants who attempt to illegally cross the United States border, as well as the death of those who illegally try to enter European territory. It was considered timely to convene a Second Euro-Mexican Forum on Migration, which this time, is to be held in Europe, and to invite other countries of the Americas that face this problem, to participate.
29/03/2004 | Culture, Science, Education and Media
The Rapporteur of the Assembly’s Committee on Culture, Science and Education Paschal Mooney (Ireland, LDR) is currently in Rome for a study visit in order to prepare a report on the possible monopolisation of the electronic media and abuse of power in Italy. The programme of the visit(30 March - 2 April)includes, among others, meetings with the competent committees of the two chambers of the Italian parliament, with representatives of the public broadcaster RAI, journalists, as well as the Italian communication and anti-trust authorities.