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Resolution 1731 (2010) Final version
Euro-Mediterranean region: call for a Council of Europe strategy
1. The Mediterranean region occupies
a strategic position in the European neighbourhood and has historical,
cultural, economic and human links with Europe. Peace and stability
in this region are of crucial importance for Europe.
2. The Parliamentary Assembly reiterates how much importance
it attaches to enhancing co-operation and exchanges with non-member
Mediterranean countries and refers in particular to Resolution 1598 (2008) on strengthening
co-operation with the Maghreb countries, and to its activities designed
to contribute to the Middle East peace process. It also recalls
that the heads of state and government of the Council of Europe,
meeting at their Warsaw Summit in May 2005, expressed their commitment
to new intercultural and inter-religious dialogue with neighbouring
regions – the southern Mediterranean, the Middle East and central
Asia – based on respect for universal human rights.
3. In this connection, the Assembly is pleased to note the recent
progress accomplished by various bodies, institutions and mechanisms
in the task of establishing co-operation between the Council of
Europe and non-member Mediterranean states. It particularly welcomes
the accession of several non-member states in this region to the
Council of Europe’s conventions and partial agreements.
4. The Assembly notes that the European Union has embarked on
a policy aimed at establishing a partnership with the non-member
Mediterranean countries and contributing to stability in the region.
The Euro-Mediterranean partnership was launched in 1995 as the “Barcelona
Process”, which was complemented in 2004 by the European Neighbourhood
Policy and placed on an institutional footing through the creation
in 2008 of the Union for the Mediterranean, which comprises all
the European Union member states and the countries bordering the
Mediterranean.
5. The Assembly reaffirms its belief that peace and stability
in the Mediterranean region can only be secured in the long term
on the basis of democracy and respect for human rights and the rule
of law, as has been demonstrated by the evolution of the European
process both within the European Union, which is founded on these
principles, and within the Council of Europe, whose statutory task
it is to promote, protect and foster these values and principles.
At the same time, the Assembly recalls that the achievement of economic
and social development is also a fundamental necessity.
6. It notes that several Mediterranean countries assert that
they are committed to these values and principles and show interest
in taking advantage of the Council of Europe’s experience and expertise
in this field. However, these subjects are not among the priorities
announced in the multilateral activities of the Union for the Mediterranean,
even if the Joint Declaration of the Paris Summit for the Mediterranean,
which is the founding document of the union, refers to democracy.
Apart from this, in its bilateral relations with some Mediterranean
states, the European Union refers specifically to the Council of
Europe.
7. The Assembly therefore considers that the Council of Europe
should intensify its bilateral co-operation in these spheres of
activity with any Mediterranean countries which so desire. At the
same time, it should take part in the multilateral process of Euro-Mediterranean
partnership and make its own contribution to this. The Assembly
would emphasise that it is not for the Council of Europe to try
to compete with the actions of the Union for the Mediterranean by
setting up parallel structures, but to complement it by adding the
dimension relating to democracy, human rights and the rule of law,
including the transversal issue of gender equality. The Assembly
also stresses the importance of parliamentary diplomacy in the Mediterranean
Basin and welcomes in that regard the positive co-operation it has
fostered with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM).
8. The Assembly calls on the Union for the Mediterranean to extend
its sphere of activities in order to include the promotion of democracy,
human rights and the rule of law and to involve the Council of Europe
in this. It appeals to the European Union and its member states,
and the Council of Europe member states taking part in the Union
for the Mediterranean, to involve the Council of Europe in its activities.
9. The Assembly reiterates its interest in participating in,
and willingness to contribute to, the development of the parliamentary
dimension of Euro-Mediterranean relations. In this context, it refers
to its decision to set up a new status of “partner for democracy”,
which came into effect in January 2010, and strongly encourages the
national parliaments of the non-member states of the Council of
Europe taking part in the Union for the Mediterranean to take advantage
of the new prospects for dialogue and co-operation that this opens
up. It proposes, in particular, to continue co-operating with the
European Centre for Global Interdependence and Solidarity (North-South
Centre) to promote equal participation of women and men in politics
and to combat violence against women.
10. The Assembly welcomes the involvement of the European Union
in the action of the North-South Centre, through political and financial
support brought by the European Commission and the participation
of the European Commission and the European Parliament in the Executive
Council of the North-South Centre. It recalls its suggestion in
its Recommendation 1893
(2009) on the future of the North-South Centre to endow
the centre with a new statute and invites the European Union to
consider joining the centre in its proper capacity.
11. The Assembly invites the non-member states of the Council
of Europe taking part in the Union for the Mediterranean to take
advantage of the Council of Europe’s experience and call on its
expertise in various areas, and, in particular to:
11.1. accede to the Council of Europe
legal instruments open to non-member states, in particular to those
in the fields of democracy, human rights and the rule of law;
11.2. abolish, if they have not already done so, capital punishment;
11.3. join, if they have not already done so, the Council of
Europe’s enlarged partial agreements such as the North-South Centre,
the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission)
and the European and Mediterranean Major Hazards Agreement (EUR-OPA);
11.4. join, if they have not already done so, the MedNET Mediterranean
co-operation network on drugs and addiction;
11.5. promote dialogue and co-operation between their parliaments
and the Assembly;
11.6. promote co-operation between the local and regional authorities
in their country and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities
of the Council of Europe;
11.7. establish contacts between the Council of Europe and the
authorities in their country responsible for questions of justice,
sustainable development, culture, education and higher education,
youth and sport, gender equality and the rights of the child;
11.8. study, in particular through the North-South Centre, and
to use, in the activities of their respective national authorities,
the experience of the institutions monitoring respect for human
rights (the European Court of Human Rights and the Commissioner
for Human Rights), as well as of the various independent monitoring
mechanisms set up by the Council of Europe, such as the European
Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, the European Commission against Racism
and Intolerance, the Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention
for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Committee
of Social Rights;
11.9. foster contacts between civil society representatives
and the Conference of International Non-governmental Organisations
of the Council of Europe.
12. The Assembly calls on the member states which are not yet
members, as well as the European Union, to join the North-South
Centre.