26.01.09

OPENING STATEMENT

OF MR LLUĺS MARIA DE PUIG

PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

JANUARY 2009 PART-SESSION

(Strasbourg, Monday, 26 January 2009, 11h30 a.m.)

Dear colleagues, dear friends,

Thank you for the confidence you have shown in me through this re-election. And thank you for your support too. It is your participation, your commitment and your ideas that make this assembly the political driving force of our pan-European organisation. So allow me to wish you, from the bottom of my heart, a happy and fruitful new year, in both your personal and professional life.

Dear friends, I also have the sad task of informing you of the death of one of our colleagues, Mr Tony Gregory, substitute in the Irish delegation, and I propose that we observe a minute's silence in his memory.

Dear colleagues, the beginning of each year is always a rather curious affair. We look backwards to take stock and at the same time we project ourselves into the future with the desire that some things will change for the better.

Where I am concerned, my term of office as President of the Assembly is now at its half-way point, and I hope I can say that the glass is half full and this year the other half will not remain empty!

Where the Council of Europe is concerned, this year we are celebrating its 60th anniversary. Through all those years, our organisation has shown remarkable ability to adapt to the complex political realities of the European continent. Today, it remains the bulwark for defending democracy, human rights and the rule of law. From that point of view too, I think that the glass is more than half full. But we live in a thirsty world. Human rights are the first to be affected in any crisis situation. And life constantly throws up new challenges testing our capability to produce responses that are adequate and worthy of the values that guide us. So it is our job to go on channelling fresh water to the well so that it does not dry up, at least for another 60 years!

I think that the agenda for this part-session, as proposed by the Bureau, is a good illustration of what I am talking about, whether focusing on conflicts between our organisation's member States or in the close vicinity, very hesitant steps along the path of democracy in certain member countries or a financial and economic crisis afflicting the entire world.

I welcome in particular Wednesday's debate on the consequences of the war between Georgia and Russia. Even though the guns have fallen silent, we cannot allow ourselves to forget or take lightly the suffering that this war inflicted on people who were in no way responsible for it. This is not at all about looking back to open up old wounds and relight the fire. On the contrary: it is our duty now to look ahead and make sure that such unacceptable situations are never repeated. The Presidential committee visited Georgia at the end of October 2008 and it has just come back from a visit to Moscow.

The frank and open talks we held in Tbilisi and Moscow were most encouraging and we are convinced that dialogue is the only way forward.

The situation in another Council of Europe member, Armenia, is also on the agenda because of the difficulties experienced by that country since the last presidential elections. I hope that our Armenian friends will appreciate that the intention of the criticism voiced by our Assembly is not to isolate their country but, on the contrary, to help it integrate within this community of values which it, itself, chose to join.

The chairs of all the political groups have unanimously proposed that this part-session hold a current affairs debate on the situation in Gaza. Even if an organisation like ours is unable to stop the fighting, it can foster dialogue between the parties involved. We must do our utmost to enable our tripartite Forum, in which representatives of the Knesset and the Palestinian Legislative Council participate, to develop and function as effectively as possible.

We can also contribute a great deal to dialogue and harmonious cohabitation between the Jewish and Muslim communities on European soil.

Finally, we should examine, in the most responsible manner, the consequences of the financial crisis that is shaking the world. A debate on the consequences of the crisis for the people of Europe and the social cost of the financial collapse is planned for this part-session. Even if its victims are not counted in the same way as those of a war, the consequences are just as devastating and disastrous.

Dear friends, this handful of examples shows that even though the world we live in is certainly better than the one the Council of Europe's founding fathers wanted to change 60 years ago, it still does not correspond to the one they dreamed of.

But it is precisely the word "dream" that enables me to end on a more optimistic note. Forty-five years ago, that great champion of human rights Martin Luther King had a dream. A few days ago that dream became reality, in the form of the new President of the United States, Barak Obama. Some will see this as just another part of the famous "American dream". But they would be wrong. Martin Luther King's dream is a different kind of dream; it is an entire vision of the world that puts human rights at the core of political concerns.

That vision of the world is our one too. This Assembly was the first to condemn those European countries which had turned a blind eye to the abductions and acts of torture carried out by the CIA. It also condemned the Guantanamo Bay detention centre as an aberration, a complete perversion of the ideals of justice. The fact that, in his very first days in office, Mr Obama called for the closure of Guantanamo Bay and demanded that the United States comply with the Geneva conventions on prisoners of war gives us great hope that Europe and the United States will now be able to join forces in their traditional role of championing the very highest standards of international law. Incidentally, I have called on our member States to take in the Guantanamo detainees who have been cleared of wrong-doing but cannot return to their country of origin, because their lives or physical well-being are at risk.

Dear friends, every year brings its share of good resolutions. This week, we too will have to vote on and adopt a number of resolutions. I hope that they too will be good ones and, more importantly, followed by effects. Can we do it? I believe so and I certainly hope so.

Thank you.