PACE President wishes to incorporate the right to a healthy environment in the European Convention on Human Rights

Strasbourg, 28.03.2008 - Addressing the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly in Athens today, Lluís Maria de Puig, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said that protection of the natural environment had to be regarded as a fundamental human right.  One of the objectives that he had set himself during his term of office was the integration of the right to a healthy environment into the European Convention on Human Rights, through an additional protocol.

The PACE President, who said that he had already invited the competent Assembly committees to begin to give thought to this matter, pointed out that Europe and the Mediterranean basin could be among the parts of the world most affected by global warming.

Stressing that the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly was an excellent example of parliamentary partnership between the EU and the countries of the Mediterranean, Mr de Puig pointed out that, in January 2008, the Assembly had adopted a resolution reaffirming its determination to co-operate more closely with the Mediterranean countries, and particularly with the parliaments of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, three countries which were in favour of the development of relations with Europe and its institutions.  Parliamentary delegations from the three Maghreb countries would therefore be regularly invited to attend plenary sessions of the Assembly.

PACE was, declared the President, convinced of the need for a proactive strategy to strengthen co-operation with the Mediterranean countries, in a spirit of partnership and solidarity.

Link to the speech (French only)