PACE President welcomes Georgian commitment to meet Assembly requirements

Strasbourg, 31.10.2008 – “I am heartened by the clear political will of the Georgian authorities to fully implement the requirements of the Assembly as expressed in Resolution 1633,” said Lluís Maria de Puig, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), at the end of a one-day visit to Tbilisi (30 October).

The President was visiting Georgia with PACE’s Presidential Committee in the framework of the implementation by Georgia and Russia of Resolution 1633 on the consequences of the war between the two countries, adopted by the Assembly at its October 2008 session.

During its visit, the Presidential Committee held high-level meetings with government officials and parliamentarians to discuss the follow-up given by the Georgian authorities to the Assembly’s demands.

The President expressed his concern at the recent tension along the administrative borders with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, especially in the light of the continuing lack of access for EU and OSCE monitors to these two breakaway regions. However, he was encouraged that, despite this, the Georgian authorities showed a clear openness to engage in constructive dialogue to ensure stability within Georgia as well as in the wider Caucasus region.

The President welcomed the constructive attitude of the Georgian authorities, and their clear sense of realism, in facing the many challenges resulting from the war. “I am especially impressed by the work of the ad hoc committee of the Georgian Parliament, chaired by a member of the opposition, to conduct a credible inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the war between Georgia and Russia,” the President declared. “I am equally impressed by the many initiatives taken by the Parliament to strengthen democracy in the aftermath of the conflict.”

In the framework of the implementation of Resolution 1633 by Russia and Georgia, the Presidential Committee will soon make a similar visit to Moscow to discuss with the highest parliamentary and executive authorities the follow-up given by Russia to the Assembly’s demands as spelled out in the resolution.

The Presidential Committee is a consultative body for the Bureau and the President of the Assembly. It consists of the President of the Assembly, the chairpersons of the five political groups (Luc van den Brande, EPP/CD; Andreas Gross, SOC; Mikhail Margelov, represented for this visit by David Wilshire, First Vice-Chairperson, EDG; Mátyás Eörsi, ALDE; Tiny Kox, UEL) and the Secretary General of the Assembly, Mateo Sorinas.