1.10.2012

OPENING ADDRESS

BY MR JEAN-CLAUDE MIGNON

PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

OCTOBER 2012 PART-SESSION

(Strasbourg, Monday 1 October 2012, 11.30 am)

Colleagues,

"This is a time of turmoil, transition and transformation", to quote UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, speaking in New York last week at the opening of the 67th session of the UN General Assembly. His words perfectly encapsulate the situation in the world in which we live today. A world where regional conflicts have global political and humanitarian effects; a world in which there is a constant quest for things that should be an everyday reality: respect for fundamental rights and equality of opportunities; a world hit by a global economic and financial crisis which is jeopardising our social model and our institutions; a world where increasing intolerance and extremism are undermining dialogue and interaction between all the different peoples, cultures and religions.

The continent of Europe is not immune. It is Europe's duty today to provide speedy and effective responses to these global challenges. And our Assembly seems to me an ideal place for facing up to the real problems today and putting forward solutions which will work.

Firstly, we need to take urgent action to deal with threats to political and democratic stability in the wide-ranging Euro-Mediterranean region. The situation in Syria is very serious: after several fruitless attempts at negotiation, and with paralysis affecting existing international mechanisms, war is raging, giving rise to the most dreadful atrocities, without any real prospect of finding a way out.

During this session, we have an opportunity to work together to find practical ways of providing an effective and coordinated European response to the humanitarian crisis in Syria. I personally support the holding of a debate on this subject, and I hope that you will vote for this proposal.

In a more general context, I can only share with you today a degree of anxiety about the events which have followed the "Arab Spring". Now that the new authorities in the countries concerned, set up after elections which we considered generally free and democratic, are attempting to put in place major reforms, we still have some questions about compliance with the values and standards which we uphold, particularly in the spheres of equality between women and men, the place of religion in the State, and respect for the rights and fundamental freedoms of all, without discrimination.

Last week, we considered this subject at the highest political level, during the European Conference of Presidents of Parliaments. Our debate was a very rich one, and we identified some practical ideas for gearing our action as appropriately as possible to the situation on the ground.

That said, while providing targeted responses to emergency situations, we should not forget the general context: increasing intolerance and the propagation of extreme and extremist ideas represent a real danger to democracy.

The unrest in the Muslim world following recent dissemination on the Internet of an Islamophobic film, the worst manifestation of which was the killing of the United States Ambassador to Libya, makes clear to us the effect that such ill-considered and provocative acts may have. What has happened highlights the importance of "living together", a field in which our Organisation has developed sound expertise.

Last year my predecessor Mevlüt Cavusoglu and Anne Brasseur began a series of initiatives to develop intercultural dialogue and its religious dimension. This week, bearing in mind the fact that this subject is one of the priorities of the Albanian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, we shall follow with all the more interest the statement to be made by Mr Edmond Panariti, Chair of the Committee of Ministers and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Albania.

What underpins our political model is the unity of the values and standards that we have undertaken to promote. Our co-operation is based on mutual trust and good faith. This is why the Safarov case, in my view, constitutes a real challenge to the values that we uphold within this Organisation.

Consequently, this subject deserves to be discussed within this Assembly. Glorification of the heinous crime committed by Mr Safarov is unacceptable, and I deeply regret the obtaining of a pardon for a criminal through the use of a legal instrument of the Council of Europe developed for truly "humanistic” purposes.

Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues,

Tomorrow we are to discuss the report on the honouring of its obligations and commitments by the Russian Federation – the first report for 7 years! The Russian Federation is a big player on the European and international political stage. It is also a member State of our Organisation which has undertaken to uphold its values and standards. Consequently, the debate on the monitoring report enables us to make a political appraisal of Russia’s participation in the work of the Council of Europe, while we join together to identify concrete measures for strengthening our co-operation further, inter alia on the issues that still raise debate.

In this context, I must admit that the tensions surrounding this report make me uneasy, for they have no foundation. Our Assembly is an arena of debate between parliamentarians freely expressing their ideas and opinions. Our debates are organised according to the principles of dialogue and mutual respect, on an equal footing and without double standards. The Russian delegation is part of our Assembly; the Russian MPs and senators have the same opportunity to express their viewpoints as their colleagues from the 46 other parliaments of the Council of Europe member States, and I hope they will do so in the Monitoring Committee today and in plenary session tomorrow.

Dialogue must have two sides, it is said. I am in favour of a dialogue with our Russian friends and colleagues. I hope that they fully share this approach and that we shall soon have another opportunity to hold an exchange of views with Mr Naryshkin, President of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, who has unfortunately cancelled his trip to Strasbourg during this part-session.

Colleagues,

In our proceedings on the honouring of obligations and commitments, all member countries of our Organisation are on an equal footing and it is our duty to react whenever we detect possible lapses. This summer we closely followed the developments in Romania. To understand the situation better, I went to Bucharest on 18 and 19 July with my colleagues on the Presidential Committee. We asked the principal political forces to open serious dialogue among themselves to put an end to the practices undermining the democratic functioning of the institutions. After the Constitutional Court’s decision to invalidate the results of the referendum of 29 July, I issued an appeal to all political players in order to ensure compliance with that decision, and today I note with satisfaction that the situation has since become stabilised.

We have set up direct dialogue with the Romanian authorities. On 11 September I personally met the Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister, our former colleague Mr Corlatean, and I assured him of our eagerness to give our Romanian partners the support which they may need, and that includes after the parliamentary elections scheduled for December 2012.

Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

This week we are to receive Mr Nicolae Timofti, President of the Republic of Moldova, and Mr Bujar Nishani, President of the Republic of Albania. Both Mr Timofti and Mr Nishani were recently elected by their respective national Parliaments in a context of particularly difficult relations between the majority and the opposition. I find it highly symbolic that they have come to the Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg at the very beginning of their term of office. So we shall hear them with great interest and with the shared intention of identifying further co-operative actions to support the Republics of Moldova and Albania on the path of European integration.

In conclusion, allow me to recall in addition that this part-session forms part of a series of very high-level international events taking place in Strasbourg: I have already mentioned the European Conference of Presidents of Parliaments which a week ago brought together over 60 Presidents or Speakers of Parliaments. I personally received 18 of them in my office, together with the President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. I may say that their appraisal of the conference was very positive and I am glad of it.

This Friday we are to start off the Second Council of Europe Youth Assembly in this Chamber, with 170 participants from the entire European continent.

Next week, Strasbourg will host the World Forum for Democracy – a major political event staged at our Assembly’s suggestion – with the participation of eminent personalities such as the United Nations Secretary General Mr Ban Ki-Moon.

This succession of events at international level bears witness to the fact that our Organisation’s action is still as politically relevant, much to my satisfaction.

Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, I wish all of you a worthwhile session and thank you for your attention!