ADDRESS BY MR MEVLÜT ÇAVUŞOĞLU, PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE, ON THE OCCASION OF THE 120^th SESSION

OF THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

(Strasbourg, Tuesday 11 May 2010)

Dear Chairperson,

Dear Ministers,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

When becoming President of the Parliamentary Assembly in January 2010, my main message and my main priority was to bring the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly closer to the 800 million Europeans living on our Continent. I declared that people of Europe expect and deserve to have an Organisation that will look, listen and respond with positive action and protect their values and freedoms.

We are the largest European Organisation with 47 member states. Some issues and problems are common to all of us, some are specific to individual countries. 27 countries are members of the European Union, but for the others the Council of Europe is the only European institutional framework.

Since the beginning of my mandate, the Assembly and I personally have concentrated our efforts on the countries which are in most urgent need of the Council of Europe’s assistance.

Two weeks ago, the Assembly adopted a resolution on the urgent need for constitutional reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I visited Sarajevo in March and warned the authorities about possible implications of holding the general election this autumn in violation of the European Convention of Human Rights. It is therefore very important that you have chosen to put this matter on your agenda today.

In February, together with the leaders of the Assembly’s political groups, I visited Albania and since then we have been working hard to encourage the opposition to return to Parliament. Our work is far from over – alarming signs are coming from Tirana about continuing protests and even a hunger strike – therefore I will urge again all Albanian political forces to put an end to this dangerous situation.

The Assembly is also attaching the utmost importance to the situation in Moldova, trying to help solve the continuing deadlock concerning the election of its President. The Assembly’s rapporteurs are working actively with the authorities and I visited Moldova last March.

We have also been encouraging positive moves aiming at bringing solution to the frozen conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh and in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. I will be frank with you – despite our efforts, it is extremely difficult to bring parliamentarians of the countries concerned to a meaningful dialogue. But we hope to achieve some results before this summer. After my visit to Azerbaijan in April, I intend to visit Armenia tomorrow and the Russian Federation and Georgia in June.

During our April part-session, the Assembly adopted a resolution on Belarus. In reaction to the two recent executions, the Assembly decided to put on hold its activities involving high-level contacts with Belarus. However, in my opinion, we have a moral obligation towards the people of Belarus to be more present and engaged in the country.

The Council of Europe’s action and its practical and political impact must be enhanced by the necessary reform of the Organisation. Today the need for reform is stronger than ever and we support the Secretary General’s efforts. Within the Parliamentary Assembly we have started to discuss how to reform our own working methods, procedures and structures to increase the relevance of our work.

Speaking about reforms, I must congratulate the Swiss Chairmanship for its efforts to improve the effectiveness of the European Court of Human Rights which have the Assembly’s full-hearted support.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

All these are issues on which the Council of Europe’s statutory bodies – the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly, and the Secretary General, have to work together. I am very glad that during the Swiss Chairmanship, we have continued strengthening our dialogue with the Committee of Ministers with the active and direct participation of the Foreign Minister, Mrs. Calmy-Rey.

Dear Minister, thank you, you have done a great job.

I am firmly convinced that we will continue this kind of relations during the Chairmanship of “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” and its Foreign Minister - my friend, Mr. Miloshoski.

Thank you for your attention.