The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe, referring to its Resolution 1353 (2003) on the future
of democracy: strengthening democratic institutions, recommends
that the Committee of Ministers:
1 identify
the development of democratic standards and assistance in their
implementation by member states as a priority sector for the Council
of Europe’s activities;
2 define precise and adequate programmes and allocate sufficient
resources to the areas of education for democratic citizenship,
training of young democratic leaders, and the media with a view
to strengthening the understanding of democratic standards and processes;
3 enlarge the terms of reference of the Steering Committee
on Local and Regional Democracy to cover democratic standards at
all levels of government, or create a new committee with such a
mandate;
4 analyse how far Article 3 (Right to free elections) of
the Additional Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights
sufficiently reflects and guarantees the democratic standards developed by
the Council of Europe;
5 consider how to ensure, in particular, that Article 3
guarantees free and equal elections of both, members of legislative
bodies and the executive, where the latter are elected by the people
through direct suffrage, as well as the right to stand as a candidate
for elections;
6 call on Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Italy,
Liechtenstein, the Russian Federation, San Marino, Switzerland,
Turkey and Ukraine to accede to the Council of Europe’s Agreement
establishing the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), which
has been signed by all other member states.
