ADDRESS BY MR MEVLÜT ÇAVUŞOĞLU,

PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

ON THE OCCASION OF THE 59^th SESSION OF THE EUROPEAN SECURITY AND DEFENCE ASSEMBLY

ASSEMBLY OF WESTERN EUROPEAN UNION

(Paris, Wednesday 1 December 2010)

President, dear colleagues, friends,

It is an honour, but also a great pleasure to address the European Security and Defence Assembly today. Mr Walter, we have known each other for so many years thanks to our work both in the Assembly that you are chairing and the one which I have the honour to preside. The same applies to many other colleagues and friends whom I see in this room and to whom I extend my warm greetings.

Indeed, no other international parliamentary bodies have been more complementary and closely linked than our two Assemblies. Not only because many of the national delegations to the two Assemblies are the same, but also together we represent the two main pillars on which peace and stability in Europe have been built since the Second World War: the so-called hard and soft security. The “hard” security being defence, and the “soft” one democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The balance between the two is delicate, but vital.

Defence and security are not simply a matter of physical power. They are also a matter of global vision, strategic thinking and political will. This is why the European Security and Defence Assembly, in the same way as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, has been playing an invaluable role in providing a pan-European forum which allows us to exchange information, share ideas and, most importantly, work out common positions on key issues affecting the lives of the people in Europe.

Dear friends, it is clear that in a global and fast-changing world, where we have to face new challenges every day, we need to excel in our capacity to adapt ourselves and be efficient. In this respect, and in the context of all the changes that have affected the European security and defence structures over the last few years, I wish to praise the remarkable efforts that your Assembly has deployed in order to be as inclusive and efficient as possible.

Not only does it ensure the essential link between members of the EU, NATO members and all the other European countries, which are just as vital for the stability of our Continent. Your Assembly can also praise itself with many important specific achievements, such as the strengthening of the armaments verification regimes or the ESDP intelligence capability. More generally, it has greatly contributed towards increasing the awareness at the highest political level of the need for a stronger common European defence and security policy.

I am well familiar with the ongoing discussions about the way in which issues that are on this Assembly’s agenda will be debated at a parliamentary level in the future. It is not for me to interfere nor to provide a magical recipe. But I would like to state my deep conviction that international parliamentary scrutiny is just as essential for our democratic stability as the control that is exercised by national parliaments. This applies to all areas, but is particularly important when it comes to defence, where we are talking above all about human lives; without forgetting the huge amounts of taxpayers’ money involved.

Dear colleagues,

The Council of Europe is also undergoing a reform process to better focus on its priorities and refine its strategies. In the Parliamentary Assembly, an Ad Hoc Committee for reform has started its work with the aim of making its first proposals to the Assembly at the beginning of 2011.

Generally speaking, we need, on the one hand, to pursue the monitoring of member countries which are particularly in need of our assistance in order to consolidate their democratic institutions and to strengthen the protection of human rights. And on the other hand, we need to step up the reflection on our response to global challenges which affect all European societies, such as migration and integration, the rising trends of extremism, xenophobia and racism; the fight against terrorism and respect for human rights; or the urgent need to intensify intercultural dialogue.

On the latter issue, I wish to mention a major debate that our Assembly will hold in April 2011 on the religious dimension of inter-cultural dialogue with the participation of representatives of different religions - Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish.

Another major challenge that we are facing is the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights. As the powers of the European Union continue to extend, it is essential to ensure direct access for individual citizens to the Strasbourg Court if they consider that their rights are violated by the EU institutions.

Dear colleagues,

Many of you are personally involved in the work that the PACE is carrying out in member states. I am going to present a very brief overview of the challenges that we are facing with regard to member countries, as I believe that by having the general picture we can better realise how closely “hard” and “soft” security are linked.

In Albania, we have been working hard to encourage the opposition to return to Parliament. We have to intensify our efforts further in the light of the approaching local elections next year. Mr Berisha, Prime Minister of Albania, will address the Assembly during our next part-session in January 2011 and I hope that this visit will bring some progress to solving the political stalemate in the country.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite all our efforts and in violation of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, the authorities failed to amend the State Constitution before the elections held on 3 October. Much more energy will be needed now after the elections in order to implement Assembly recommendations and approve a comprehensive package of constitutional amendments.

Regarding the situation in Kosovo, our focus has been to make sure that irrespective of its status, Kosovo should be a safe place for all those who live there and where the Council of Europe’s democratic standards are respected. While taking into account the legitimate concerns of Serbia and the UN Security Council Resolution 1244, the Assembly has initiated a dialogue with representatives of the political forces elected to the Kosovo Assembly. These representatives will now be invited to meetings of the Assembly Committees whenever issues which concern Kosovo are discussed.

I very much hope that the President of Serbia, Mr Tadic, will accept my invitation to address the Assembly in January on the occasion of a joint debate on three reports relating to the Western Balkans.

During my official visit to Russia in July, I felt that the current climate in the relations with the Council of Europe is positive and steadily improving. There remain questions on which our opinions differ and there are demands which Russia, as a member of our Organisation, has to fulfil. But if we continue to work as partners, with mutual respect and without double standards, I am sure that progress can be achieved even on difficult issues. We now have excellent co-operation even on very sensitive files, such as the situation in the North Caucasus. The Assembly Resolution adopted in June on this issue was fully supported by members of the Russian delegation.

This brings us to a difficult subject, the war between Georgia and Russia. Our Assembly fully supports the territorial integrity of Georgia. While the political negotiations between the parties are being held in Geneva, I am of the opinion that the Council of Europe must concentrate on humanitarian issues to improve the life of ordinary citizens in the region. We hope to achieve more progress during a hearing with the participation of the different stakeholders, which will be organised by the Monitoring Committee on 17 January in Paris.

I recently paid an official visit to Ukraine. The country now has started the urgently needed reforms after years of political instability. But to succeed in this task, the new President and governing coalition need to associate different political forces in the country with the reform process and to resist the temptation of excessive concentration of power. Our Congress of local and regional authorities observed the local and regional elections held on 31 October 2010 and concluded that the country’s election system still requires substantial improvements.

The Council of Europe has made every effort to help resolve the present political and constitutional deadlock in Moldova. It is unfortunate that the referendum on the revision of Article 78 of the Constitution concerning the election of the President failed and that the country had to face yet another parliamentary election last Sunday. The Assembly observed this election and we shall pursue our mediating efforts between the different political forces in order to help them find a solution to the current deadlock.

I also visited both Armenia and Azerbaijan. In Armenia, besides the urgent need to resolve the cases of those still in prison after the Presidential election of March 2009, the authorities must reform the election system in order to restore citizens’ confidence in the democratic process. In Azerbaijan, the Assembly observed the parliamentary elections held on 7 November 2010 and concluded that, despite a better general election environment, further progress in the democratic development of the country is necessary. The release from prison of the two bloggers, after intense international political pressure - including from myself - is certainly a step in the right direction.

In the South-Caucasus region, we have been encouraging moves aiming at bringing a solution to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Here again, we do not interfere with the OSCE Minsk Group where the negotiations regarding the settlement of the conflict are going on. We try to encourage trust and confidence-building measures, in particular, among the parliamentary delegations of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Now about Belarus, which is the only European country whose parliament has no official status with the Assembly. There is one non-negotiable condition for us to start discussion on de-freezing our relations – the death penalty. Following two more executions last spring, the Assembly decided to put on hold its activities involving high-level contacts with Belarus. We will not observe the presidential elections on 19 December, but we hope that progress in our relations will be possible next year following some positive steps which we expect from the Belarusian authorities.

A word regarding my own country, Turkey. The positive result of the referendum on constitutional changes as well as the high turnout showed how strongly the Turkish people are attached to their democratic rights and freedoms and to a future in Europe. This is a powerful signal for Turkey’s chairmanship of the Council of Europe, which started three weeks ago. Hopefully further reforms will follow soon, including a new Constitution.

Finally, we have also pursued our strategy of bringing non-member states closer to the Council of Europe and to our standards, particularly through our new special status called “Partnership for Democracy” for Parliaments of neighbouring non-member states. We have received official requests for this status from the Parliaments of Morocco and Palestine and the Parliament of Kazakhstan is currently considering to make a request. I shall be paying an official visit to Morocco at the end of this month and very much hope that it will yield positive results.

Dear friends,

We can be proud of belonging to international institutions that have greatly contributed to what Europe represents today – one of the most prosperous and democratically stable areas in the world. Yet none of our institutions have been able to prevent the cataclysms that our societies are going through : economic crisis, erosion of the social protection mechanisms, growing intolerance and violence. We have not been able to effectively counter international terrorism and organised crime, nor make a significant progress in stopping further climate change.

Against this background, some speculation is lurking that what we have been unable to achieve together, can be best done on our own. We have witnessed this with the difficulties in creating a genuine common European security and defence policy or with the ongoing debate on the future of the Euro zone.

This logic, in my opinion, is totally counterproductive, not to say dangerous. We need international cooperation and integration more than ever. New powers are emerging in a global world and the balance of power is shifting - yet the political models of these new global players are not necessarily the same as ours, nor are their values. Europe has therefore to reassert itself in this new environment, without making concessions on the democratic acquis that it has granted to European citizens over the years.

Europe has to accept the diversity of its cultures, languages and political practices - not as a handicap but as a great opportunity and a major challenge. All this richness of experiences, ideas and energies should be put together to preserve our democratic stability. Parliaments and international parliamentary assemblies, as the emanation of the people, should continue to play a leading role in this process.

Thank you for your attention.