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Resolution 1515 (2006)
Progress of the Assembly's Monitoring Procedure (May 2005-June 2006)
1. The Parliamentary
Assembly welcomes the work carried out for over nine years now by
its Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by
Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee). Its
increasing efficiency, impact and credibility are widely acknowledged.
2. Out of the eight monitoring reports the Monitoring Committee
has presented to the Assembly from May 2005 to June 2006, three
take stock of the situation in Georgia, the Russian Federation and
Ukraine and constitute genuine road maps for future reforms in these
countries; the other five react to current political events, namely
the constitutional reform in Armenia, the functioning of democratic
institutions in Azerbaijan and Moldova, as well as the challenge
of the still unratified credentials of the parliamentary delegation
of Azerbaijan on substantial grounds following the parliamentary
elections in the country in November 2005.
3. Amendments to Resolution
1115 (1997) on the setting up of an Assembly committee on the honouring of
obligations and commitments by member states of the Council of Europe
(monitoring committee), adopted last year by virtue of Resolution 1431 (2005) on the initiation of a monitoring procedure and post-monitoring dialogue,
were aimed at reinforcing the role of the Assembly in what is a
highly political area, namely the decision to open or re-open a
monitoring procedure. One year after the entry into force of these
changes, it appears, however, that the rules are still not clear,
in particular as regards the time limit within which the Bureau of
the Assembly has to refer a motion for a resolution on an application
to open a monitoring procedure to the Monitoring Committee.
4. Also, Resolution
1115 (1997), as revised by Resolution
1431 (2005), still fails to properly regulate the procedures governing
the conclusion of the post-monitoring dialogue carried out with
a member state for which the monitoring procedure has been closed.
5. Consequently, in order to enhance clarity and thus increase
the credibility and transparency of its monitoring mechanism, the
Assembly decides to further amend the terms of reference of the
Monitoring Committee, and notably to:
5.1. introduce the following paragraph after paragraph 2 of
the appendix to Resolution
1115 (1997):
“The Bureau shall refer applications tabled in accordance with paragraphs 2.i and iii above to the Monitoring Committee at one of its next two meetings following their tabling.”;
5.2. introduce in the appendix to Resolution 1115 (1997) the following paragraph after paragraph 7:
“When reporting to the Bureau of the Assembly on the post-monitoring dialogue carried out with a member state upon a decision by the Assembly, the Monitoring Committee shall state in its relevant memorandum whether the post-monitoring dialogue with this state is to be considered concluded:– if the Bureau agrees with the Monitoring Committee’s recommendation to conclude the post-monitoring dialogue, such recommendation should be recorded in the progress report of the Bureau and the Standing Committee;– if the Bureau does not agree with the Monitoring Committee’s recommendation to conclude the post-monitoring dialogue, the memorandum adopted by the Monitoring Committee shall be transformed, by way of derogation from Rule 49.2 of the Rules of Procedure, into a report containing a draft resolution and the Bureau shall include the item in the agenda and order of business of the next Assembly part-session for debate and adoption. A representative of the Bureau may speak in its name in this debate.”;
5.3. The new provisions shall enter into force upon their adoption.
6. The Assembly notes with satisfaction
that the European Commission has regularly referred to the fulfilment
of commitments and obligations towards the Council of Europe in
its assessments of progress made by states involved in the European
Union accession or pre-accession procedures. Compliance with Council
of Europe obligations and commitments is also a very important element
in the assessment of the democratic and human rights record of European
states participating in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)
or of the Russian Federation, with which the European Union has
a special Partnership and Co-operation Agreement. Thus the work
of the Monitoring Committee is of paramount importance in the framework
of the European Union’s future enlargement, the ENP and special
agreements. This has been recently reaffirmed by Mr Juncker, Prime
Minister of Luxembourg, in his report on the relations between the
Council of Europe and the European Union.
7. Therefore the Assembly:
7.1. recalling
its Recommendation 1724
(2005) on the Council of Europe and the European Neighbourhood
Policy of the European Union, reiterates that for the countries
covered by the ENP which are members of the Council of Europe, compliance
with Council of Europe commitments and obligations should be made
a precondition for any further European integration;
7.2. fully endorses the recommendation made in the Juncker
report according to which a working rule should be established whereby
the reports, conclusions and recommendations to the states concerned issued, inter alia, by its Monitoring Committee,
as well as its own resolutions on the honouring of obligations and
commitments by Council of Europe member states should be systematically
and expressly cited as the first reference source in Europe for
democracy, the rule of law and human rights;
7.3. encourages its Monitoring Committee to enhance its contacts
with the European Parliament, as well as the relevant services of
the European Commission and the Council of Ministers.
8. Resolution 1115
(1997) clearly underlines the importance “to ensure full compliance
with the undertakings made by all [Council of Europe] member states,
in a spirit of co-operation and non-discrimination” and entrusts
the Monitoring Committee with the task of verifying not only the
honouring of the specific commitments accepted by member states
upon their accession to the Council of Europe but first of all “the obligations
assumed by the member states under the terms of the Council of Europe
Statute, the European Convention on Human Rights and all other Council
of Europe conventions to which they are parties”.
9. However, despite the clear wording of Resolution 1115 (1997) and subsequent appeals by the Assembly, the Monitoring
Committee has so far been unable to carry out its full mandate and
to verify the honouring of statutory obligations assumed by all
member states since, with the exception of one member state, monitoring
procedures have so far been initiated only with respect to member
states that have joined the Organisation since 1989. At the same
time, it is also true that the mechanism to open new monitoring procedures
is complex and its use carries a certain political weight.
10. Consequently, the Assembly welcomes the Monitoring Committee’s
initiative to prepare and attach to its annual progress reports
to the Assembly periodic reports on states which are not currently
subjected to a monitoring procedure or involved in a post-monitoring
dialogue. Such reports will be based on:
10.1. a country-by-country assessment carried out by other Council
of Europe bodies and institutions (the Committee of Ministers, the
Commissioner for Human Rights, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities
of the Council of Europe, the Group of States against Corruption
(GRECO), the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money
Laundering Measures (MONEYVAL), the European Committee for the Prevention
of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), the
Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection
of National Minorities, the Committee of Experts of the European
Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the European Commission
against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) and the European Committee
of Social Rights);
10.2. resolutions and recommendations of the Assembly on specific
issues in member states that have been examined by rapporteurs from
other committees of the Assembly.
11. The Assembly underlines that, should the situation warrant
it, the existence of such periodic reports shall not prevent the
initiation of a monitoring procedure with respect to one or more
of the states concerned in accordance with paragraph 2 of the appendix
to Resolution 1115 (1997).
12. For this year, the Monitoring Committee has presented such
reports on 11 out of the 33 member states currently not involved
in a monitoring procedure or a post-monitoring dialogue, and these
have been chosen on the basis of alphabetical order: Andorra, Austria,
Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France and Germany. A second group of states will be examined
as part of the Monitoring Committee’s progress report for 2007 and
the first three-year cycle will be completed with the last group
of states being examined in 2008.
13. On the basis of the reports attached to this year’s progress
report of the Monitoring Committee, the Assembly:
13.1. invites the national parliaments
of the states concerned to:
13.1.1. use
these reports as the basis for a debate on their country’s record
with regard to the fulfilment of their statutory and conventional
obligations as member states of the Council of Europe;
13.1.2. promote execution of the judgments of the European Court
of Human Rights and compliance with recommendations made by the
Commissioner for Human Rights and the other Council of Europe specific
monitoring bodies, both by provoking and accelerating necessary legislative
initiatives and exercising their role of oversight of government
action;
13.2. noting the interim resolution adopted by the Committee
of Ministers on 5 April 2006 concerning the judgment of the European
Court of Human Rights in the case of Čonka
v. Belgium, encourages the Belgian authorities and, in
particular, the Belgian Parliament, to accelerate the legislative
reforms required to ensure full execution of the judgment;
13.3. invites the Commissioner for Human Rights to give priority
in organising visits and preparing reports on Austria, Belgium and
Germany, which his predecessor did not visit.
14. The Assembly, noting that a number of the member states under
consideration are not yet subject to certain specific monitoring
mechanisms of the Organisation because they have not ratified the
relevant conventions or have not joined the relevant bodies, invites
the member states to take the necessary steps within three years.
It notably urges:
14.1. Andorra to
sign and ratify and France to ratify the European Charter of Local
Self-Government (ETS No. 122);
14.2. Andorra, Austria, Belgium, France and Germany to ratify
the Civil Law Convention on Corruption (ETS No. 174);
14.3. Andorra, Austria, France and Germany to ratify the Criminal
Law Convention on Corruption (ETS No. 173);
14.4. Andorra, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France
and Germany to sign and ratify and Austria, Belgium, Cyprus and
Finland to ratify the 2005 Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure
and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing
of Terrorism (CETS No. 198), noting that all of them have ratified
the 1990 convention on the same subject matter (ETS No. 141);
14.5. Andorra, Denmark and France to sign and ratify and Austria,
Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Germany to ratify Protocol
No. 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 177);
14.6. France to ratify Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention
on Human Rights concerning the abolition of the death penalty in
all circumstances (ETS No. 187);
14.7. Andorra and Belgium to ratify Protocol No. 14 to the European
Convention on Human Rights amending the control system of the Convention
(CETS No. 194);
14.8. Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Germany to ratify
the revised European Social Charter (ETS No. 163), noting that all
of them have ratified the 1961 European Social Charter (ETS No. 35);
14.9. Andorra, Estonia and Germany to sign and ratify and Austria,
the Czech Republic and Denmark to ratify the Additional Protocol
to the European Social Charter providing for a system of collective complaints
(ETS No. 158);
14.10. Andorra and France to sign and ratify and Belgium to ratify
the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
(ETS No. 157);
14.11. Andorra, Belgium and Estonia to sign and ratify and the
Czech Republic and France to ratify the European Charter for Regional
or Minority Languages (ETS No. 148);
14.12. Austria to join the specific monitoring bodies of GRECO
and MONEYVAL;
14.13. Belgium, Denmark, Finland and Germany to join MONEYVAL.