FOR THE ATTENTION OF THE MEMBERS OF THE BUREAU OF THE ASSEMBLY

 

Secretariat of the Assembly

Synopsis No. 2000/ 116

04 July 2000

 

The Bureau of the Assembly meeting in Strasbourg on 30 June 2000 with Lord Russell-Johnston in the chair,

-     asked the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Immunities to report before the end of the year on the question of interpretation and modification of the Rules of Procedure, in particular Rules 39 (electronic voting) and 41 (quorum) and, following the adoption of Assembly Resolution 1220 (2000) on the Assembly’s working methods and its committee structure, to review the terms of reference of Assembly committees,

-     set up an ad hoc Committee composed of 15 representatives of the Assembly’s political groups and including the rapporteurs of the competent Assembly committees, to monitor the follow-up to Recommendations 1444 and 1456 (2000) and Resolution 1221 (2000) and possibly to participate in a Duma hearing on “progress in restoring the economy and the social sphere and ensuring respect for human and civil rights and freedoms in the Chechen Republic” in September 2000,

-     approved a memorandum of the Secretary General of the Assembly on inter-parliamentary cooperation concerning Belarus and agreed with the proposal from the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights that their Rapporteur for opinion, Mr Svoboda (Czech Republic, EPP/CD) join MM Davis (UK, SOC) and Behrendt (Germany, SOC) during their next visits to Minsk,

-     following parliamentary elections in Spain and Greece, and subject to ratification by the Assembly, approved the following changes in the composition of the Monitoring Committee:

. Mr AGRAMUNT FONT de MORA (EPP/CD, Spain) to replace Mr RAMIREZ PERY (EPP/CD, Spain)

. Mr FLOROS (SOC, Greece) to replace Mr KOULOURIS (SOC, Greece),

-     endorsed the analysis of the use made by the Assembly’s political groups of their allocations for 1999 (AS/Bud (2000) 7),

-     approved the final apportionment of the allocation to political groups for 2000 as proposed in document AS/Bud (2000) 8,

-     drew up the lists of candidates for the European Committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in respect of the Czech Republic and of Greece and forwarded the lists to the Committee of Ministers, with an expressed preference for candidate No. 2 on the list of Greece,

-     approved, subject to ratification by the Assembly, the following references to committee:

. motion for a recommendation on the setting up of an Assembly ad hoc committee on development and security matters in the Adriatic region (Doc. 8769) to the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development, the Bureau considering that it was not necessary to set up an ad hoc Committee of the Assembly;

. motion for a recommendation on the transfer of sentenced persons (Doc.8770) to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and, for opinion, to the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee;

. motion for a recommendation on the state of environment of the Baltic Sea (Doc.8772) to the Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities;

. motion for a resolution on the protection of the human genome by the Council of Europe (Doc.8773) to the Committee on Science and Technology and, for opinion, to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights;

. motion for a resolution on the elimination of religious discrimination against Jehovah’s witnesses (Doc. 8649) to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights for report (modification of reference No. 2490);

-     confirmed the prior reference No. 2504 of the motion for a recommendation on equal treatment of men and women running their own businesses or helping their spouses in family businesses (Doc.8717) to the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men for report to the Standing Committee;

-     authorised the following meetings elsewhere than in Strasbourg or Paris:

. ad hoc sub-committee (of the Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development and Food) in Porto (Portugal), 24-28 July 2000;

. Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities and ad hoc sub-committee on the Mediterranean and the Black Sea in Varna (Bulgaria), 19-21 October 2000;

. sub-committee on Regional Planning (of the Committee on the Environment, Regional Planning and Local Authorities) in Hanover (Germany), 6-8 September 2000;

. Committee on Culture and Education and sub-committee on Cultural Heritage in Budapest (Hungary), 3-4 September 2000;

. Committee on Economic Affairs and Development in Istanbul (Turkey), 3-4 September 2000;

. Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in Helsinki (Finland), 13-14 November 2000;

. working group on parliamentary co-operation among the South-Caucasian countries in Baku (Azerbaijan) and Yerevan (Armenia) in September 2000,

-     agreed that the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography be represented in the ad hoc committee which will participate in the European Conference “All different, all equal: from principle to practice”, in Strasbourg, 11-13 October 2000;

-    appointed Mr Gjellerod (Denmark, SOC) to represent the Assembly at the 104th Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Jakarta (Indonesia) from 15-21 October 2000;

-    took note that Mr Elo (Finland, SOC) will represent the President of the Assembly at the “Conference on Science and Technology in Europe – Prospects for the 21st Century” in Gdansk (Poland), 9-11 October 2000;

-    took note and thanked the Turkish and Swiss parliamentary delegations for their invitations to hold the Assembly’s Spring meetings, respectively, in 2001 from 23-25 May in Turkey and in 2002 from 27-29 May in Switzerland;

-         confirmed its next meetings as follows:

. Paris, Thursday 7 September 2000 at 9.30 am

. Strasbourg, Monday 25 September 2000 at 8.30 am

. Strasbourg, Friday 29 September 2000 at 8.30 am

. Strasbourg, Wednesday 8 November 2000 at ...

A. Nollinger, M. Heinrich, H. Schade