OPENING STATEMENT

OF MR MEVLÜT ÇAVUŞOĞLU

PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

OCTOBER 2010 PART-SESSION

(Strasbourg, Monday, 4 October 2010, 11h30 a.m.)

Dear colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to welcome you again to Strasbourg. During this part-session, we will have the opportunity to commemorate a great anniversary – 60 years since the signing of the European Convention on Human Rights on 4 November 1950 in Rome. I would also like to thank those member states which decided to organise commemorative events in their national parliaments on this occasion.

60 years is a long time – many documents of this age become pieces of history, overtaken by developments. Not this document – despite enormous progress in the field of human rights in Europe since 1950, despite the almost complete disappearance of oppressive regimes from the European landscape, every day its principles are being put to the test somewhere in Europe.

Many of you know that it is the principle of non-discrimination which is of particular importance to me. During the last couple of months, it has been the issue of the Roma population in Europe which has raised serious questions about discrimination. On 20 August, I declared that I was shocked by recent outrages against Roma in Europe. Measures taken in some European countries certainly did not help to improve the integration of this vulnerable minority and I warned that they were likely to lead to an increase in racist and xenophobic feelings in Europe.

Since then, other powerful voices have drawn attention to the treatment of Roma, most significantly from the European Union. I have had several other occasions to recall the principles and recommendations made by the Assembly in our resolution adopted last June, in particular during my official visits to Romania at the end of August and to Paris last week.

I agree with our Secretary General, Mr. Jagland, that we must now concentrate on giving the much needed political impetus to existing national and international efforts for the sustainable integration of Roma. I therefore give my full support to the Secretary General’s initiative to convene a high-level meeting on Roma on 20 October 2010 in Strasbourg in the Council of Europe. It is the right moment and the right place and I am confident that the work done by the Assembly in this field, including the urgent debate proposed for this Thursday, will be taken into account in the Final declaration of this high-level meeting.

I will also raise the issue of integration with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Mr. Westerwelle, during our meeting later today. For me, integration does not mean assimilation, we must succeed in combining the legitimate demands of states asking for more integration efforts on the part of migrants, especially as regards learning the language of the receiving country, with the need to preserve cultural and religious traditions of migrants.

I started my speech by referring to the rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. I am therefore particularly glad that during this part-session, we will discuss important reports concerning the rights of children, still a very vulnerable group in our society. In this connection, I am very pleased that Mrs. Hayrünnisa Gül, patron of the Turkish “Education enables” campaign, has accepted our invitation and will address us during the debate on education rights for children with illnesses or disabilities.

On a more institutional note, I should like to inform you that, at a joint meeting of our Presidential Committee and the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament in Brussels last September, we launched discussions on measures to be taken by both parliamentary bodies with a view to the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights. We discussed, in particular, the right of the European Parliament to appoint and send a certain number of representatives to PACE when the we elect judges to the European Court of Human Rights and the setting-up of an informal body in order to coordinate information-sharing.

Relations with the European Union are, as we know, of vital importance to our Organisation. I was honoured to have been invited last week to the Committee on European Affairs of the French National Assembly for an exchange of views on the relations between the Council of Europe and the EU. It is therefore very appropriate and timely to discuss tomorrow the report on the need to avoid duplication with the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.

Dear friends,

In many of our member states, we are now witnessing demonstrations and social unrest provoked by the austerity measures adopted by European governments. Therefore, I invite you to use to the best the tribune offered by our debates on Wednesday on human rights and business as well as on the activities of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Council of Europe Development Bank. Our commitment to human rights, including social rights, is always best tested in crises. We need to send a strong message from Strasbourg to the people of Europe to ensure them that the Parliamentary Assembly will stand up for their rights even more strongly when times are difficult.

Finally, I would like to thank the Macedonian Chairmanship, which will end next month, for the remarkable work and commitment to the Council of Europe. We have worked in a perfect tandem with my friend, Foreign Minister Mr Antonio Milošoski, who was always willing and ready to support Assembly’s proposals and initiatives. We will also have a good opportunity to discuss the results and achievements of the Macedonian Chairmanship with the Prime Minister Mr Nikola Gruevski, who will address us on Thursday.

Dear colleagues,

At times we may be discouraged by what we consider a lack of progress on some of our resolutions calling for the respect of our fundamental principles, but then falling victim to real-politics. However, sooner or later, time will prove that we were right to stick to these principles. Fifty years ago, the Parliamentary Assembly, presided by my predecessor Per Federspiel from Denmark, adopted Resolution no.189 calling for the respect of the free will of the Baltic peoples as regards their right to auto-determination. It was difficult to imagine at that time, but now colleagues from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are members of this Assembly representing their independent and democratic states. I wish to congratulate them on their achievements and pay tribute to the courage and determination of their people. We need to believe in principles and ideals, even if they seem hard to implement.

I wish you all a fruitful and productive session.

Thank you for your attention.