FOR THE ATTENTION OF THE MEMBERS OF THE BUREAU OF THE ASSEMBLY
Secretariat of the Assembly
Synopsis No. 2000 / 179 Rev
21 December 2000
The Bureau of the Assembly, meeting on 14 December 2000 in Paris with Lord Russell-Johnston in the Chair,
- held an exchange of views on the follow-up to Resolution 1227 (2000) and to Recommendation 1478 (2000) on the conflict in the Chechen Republic and took note:
. of the results of a visit to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus by a delegation of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography from 20 to 24 November,
. of the results of a visit to Moscow by the Rapporteurs of the Political Affairs Committee and the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights from 8 to 12 December 2000,
. that the two rapporteurs will return to Moscow and Chechnya from 13-18 January 2001;
- agreed to examine the request by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) for special guest status with the Assembly on the basis of the opinion prepared by the rapporteur of the Political Affairs Committee, Mr Frey (Switzerland, LDR);
- asked the President of the Assembly to invite an ad hoc delegation from the Federal Parliament of the FRY to attend the Assembly’s January 2001 Part-Session;
- referred the application by the FRY for membership of the Council of Europe (Doc. 8909) to the Committee on Political Affairs and Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights (for opinion), and asked the Secretary General of the Assembly to make arrangements for two eminent jurists to draw up a report on the conformity of the legal order of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with Council of Europe standards;
- took note of the report on the local elections in Albania (1 and 15 October 2000) adopted by the CLRAE;
- took note of and declassified the report, including the addendum, on the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan (5 November 2000), confirmed the decision by the President of the Assembly to send the Chairman and the Rapporteur of the ad hoc committee to Azerbaijan from 15-18 December, and took note of the arrangements made by the Secretary General of the Assembly for the ad hoc committee to observe the re-run of elections in 11 single mandate districts to be held on 4 January 2001;
- took note of and declassified the report on the parliamentary and municipal elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina (11 November 2000);
- took note of the composition of the ad hoc committee to observe the elections in the Republic of Serbia (23 December 2000);
- took note of the information provided on the accession by Armenia and Azerbaijan to the Council of Europe;
- updated the agenda and the draft order of business of the first part of the 2001 Ordinary Session of the Assembly (22-26 January);
- took note of the information provided by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on the budget of the Organisation for 2001 adopted by the Ministers’ Deputies;
- took note of the information provided by the Secretary General of the Assembly on the new structures of the Assembly’s secretariat as part of the implementation of Resolution 1220 (2000) on the reform of the Assembly’s working methods and its committee structure as from 22 January 2001;
- approved, subject to ratification by the Assembly, the following references, transmissions and modifications in references to committees:
Motion for a Recommendation on women and micro-loans (Doc. 8893): to Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, for report to the Standing Committee;
Motion for a Resolution on federal organisation reforms in Russia (Doc. 8897): transmission to the Monitoring Committee for information;
Request for an opinion from the Committee of Ministers on the Draft Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, concerning transplantation of organs and tissues of human origin (Doc. 8898): to the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee and, for opinion, to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and to the Committee on Culture and Education;
Motion for an Order on local elections in Himara, Albania (Doc. 8900): to the Monitoring Committee for information;
Motion for a Recommendation on Financing of the European Court of Human Rights (Doc. 8862): to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and, for opinion, to the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development, for report to the Standing Committee (modification of ref. No. 2552);
- took note that the motion for a recommendation on resolving the Transnistrian conflict (Doc. 8718) would be taken into account by the Monitoring Committee as part of its report on Moldova;
- approved the following meetings outside Strasbourg and Paris:
. sub-committee on the Middle East (of the Political Affairs Committee), in Israel and the Palestinian territories in principle in March or April 2001,
. sub-committee on relations with non-member countries (of the Political Affairs Committee) in Japan from 5-10 February 2001;
- authorised the following appointments of Assembly representatives for official activities:
. Presidential Committee to attend the 105th IPU Conference in Cuba from 31 March to 7 April 2001;
. Mr Frey (Switzerland, LDR) to visit the FRY from 8-10 January 2001 in the framework of the request for special guest status;
. Mr Surjan (Hungary, EPP/CD) and Mrs Jäätteenmäki (Finland, LDR) to visit Bosnia and Herzegovina in the framework of the country’s request for Council of Europe membership;
. Mr Behrendt (Germany, SOC), Mr Davis (UK, SOC) and Mr Svoboda (Czech Republic, EPP/CD) to visit Belarus in early 2001 as part of a “troika” visit (PACE, EP and PA OSCE);
- asked the President of the Assembly to invite a delegation from the Chamber of Representatives of the Belarus Parliament, including independent members, and representatives of the opposition not represented in the Parliament to come to Strasbourg on the occasion of the Assembly’s January 2001 Part-Session for an exchange of views with the Political Affairs Committee;
- decided to cancel its meeting scheduled in Paris on Monday 8 January 2001;
- agreed to hold its next meetings as follows:
. Strasbourg, Monday 22 January 2001 at 8.30 am
. Strasbourg, Friday 26 January 2001 at 8.30 am
. Paris, Tuesday 13 March 2001 at 3 pm.
Horst Schade / Agnès Nollinger