22.6.2009 - Finalised

WELCOME BY MR LLUĺS MARIA DE PUIG,

PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY,

TO MR SAMUEL ZBOGAR, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF SLOVENIA, CHAIRPERSON OF THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS

(Strasbourg, Monday 22 June 2009, 15h00, Hemicycle)

Dear Chairman,

I am very pleased to welcome you to this Chamber less than a month after you had your first contact with the Parliamentary Assembly during the Standing Committee in Ljubljana. There you, and the Minister of Justice of Slovenia, presented the priorities of the Slovenian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers. These priorities were met by the parliamentarians with full approval and you can be sure that, in your endeavour to fulfil them, the Parliamentary Assembly will be, as always, a good partner and a driving political force.

Your chairmanship has come at a crucial moment for our Organisation. Firstly, because it coincides with the 60th anniversary of the Council of Europe, which is a time to draw on our achievements and look forward to the future. Secondly, as you could witness in Ljubljana and this morning, because of the key issue for the future of the Council of Europe, the election of its next Secretary General.

I take this opportunity to praise you for the time, energy and ambition that you have invested in this issue – by answering all the uneasy questions of the parliamentarians in Ljubljana, by listening carefully to the entire debate on the election of the Secretary General, by organising bilateral meetings and a meeting last Thursday between the Bureau of the Committee of Ministers, with ministerial participation, and the Presidential Committee of the Assembly. This afternoon we shall have another meeting between you and the Presidential Committee and I do hope that we can work out solutions that will allow us to find a satisfactory solution as soon as possible.

Mr Chairman, we have managed to travel together on this bumpy road because we both care for the future and the role of this organisation, which still has so much to deliver to the European citizens. I know that you will come up now with some constructive proposals for enhancing the dialogue and improving the cooperation between the Committee of Ministers and the Assembly. Be assured that these are the principles that guide us too.