SPEECH BY MR MEVLÜT ÇAVUŞOĞLU,

PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY,

FOR MR AHMET DAVUTOĞLU, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF TURKEY, PRESIDENT OF THE COMMITTEE

OF MINISTERS

(Strasbourg, 24 January 2011, 3.00 P.M.)

Dear Chairman,

It is a great pleasure to welcome you in Strasbourg after the very interesting and fruitful first exchange of views that we had with you during the Standing Committee meeting in Antalya last November.

We have just continued our dialogue over a working lunch between the Bureau of the Committee of Ministers and the Presidential Committee of the Assembly.

I am sure that the entire Assembly would like to take full advantage now of the opportunity to share thoughts with you on the challenges and priorities for the Council of Europe.

In this connexion, let me express my appreciation that the priorities of the Turkish Chairmanship fully coincide with those of our Assembly.

First and foremost, we are both working on the reform of our Organisation in order to adapt it to the challenges of the 21st century. We expect that the Assembly report on the reform will be adopted during the June part-session.

We shall also contribute to the follow-up conference on the Interlaken process on reform of the European Court that will take place in Izmir. Concerning the strengthening of the monitoring mechanisms of the Council of Europe, our Monitoring Committee has been playing a very active role, including parliamentary diplomacy. We are also working on the parliamentary dimension of the future accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Finally, with regard to the efforts of the Turkish chairmanship to strengthen inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue, a major debate on this issue will take place in the Assembly in April.

Dear Chairman, may I thank you on behalf of the Assembly for your strong personal commitment, and also that of Turkey, to bring substantial progress on all the priorities that I have just mentioned. We are very honoured that the President of Turkey, Mr Gül, will also be with us tomorrow and we do hope that the Prime Minister, Mr Erdogan, will be able to accept our invitation for the April part-session.

Please be assured of the Assembly’s full support in your endeavours. You have the floor.