Secretariat of the Assembly

 

Synopsis n° 2001/030 rev.

19 March 2001

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The Bureau of the Assembly, meeting on 13 March 2001 in Paris with Lord Russell-Johnston in the Chair,

• with regard to the follow-up to Resolution 1240 (2001) on the conflict in the Chechen Republic:

• appointed the members of the ad hoc committee on Chechnya which constitutes the Assembly’s component of the joint working group created under paragraph 22 of the Resolution (see appendix for full list of members); 

• took note that the Russian Duma had nominated its members of the joint working group on Chechnya;

• approved the meeting of the ad hoc committee in Moscow from 20-22 March 2001;

• took note of the information provided by the Assembly’s rapporteur on the visit by the parliamentary troika (PACE, EP, PA OSCE) to Belarus from 5-7 March 2001, and that the Chairman of the Political Affairs Committee will promote contacts with a delegation of the National Assembly of Belarus on the occasion of the Assembly’s April Part-Session;

• adopted the agenda and drew up the draft order of business for the second part of the 2001 Ordinary Session of the Assembly (23-27 April 2001);

• appointed Mr Gürkan (Turkey, SOC) rapporteur for the progress report of the Bureau;

• took note of the draft agenda of the meeting of the Standing Committee in Paris on 14 March;

• took note of the information provided by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on the Organisations’ budget for 2002 and by the Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly on the Assembly’s budget for 2002;

• approved the allocation for 2001 to the International Institute for Democracy;

• approved the criteria for the registration and admissibility of petitions addressed to the President of the Assembly and, in accordance with these criteria, declared:

• inadmissible the petitions concerning the Picard bill aiming to step up repression and prevention as regards sectarian grouping, and the one concerning Mr Erich Priebke,

• admissible the petition concerning the protection of minorities in Belgium and referred it to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights for examination;

• took note of the information provided on the observation of the legislative elections in Moldova on 25 February 2001 by an ad hoc committee of the Assembly;

• set up an ad hoc committee for the observation of the elections in the Republic of Montenegro, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, on 22 April 2001 on the same basis as for the recent elections in the Republic of Serbia, FRY;

• set up an ad hoc committee composed of a maximum of 30 members for the observation of the legislative elections in Albania in June 2001;

• subject to ratification by the Assembly, approved the modification in the composition of the Monitoring Committee following a proposal by a political group;

• drew up the lists of candidates in respect of Bulgaria and Hungary for the European Committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment (CPT) and forwarded them to the Committee of Ministers;

• decided to propose a number of references, transmissions and modifications in references to committees to the Standing Committee for ratification (see synopsis of the Standing Committee of 14 March 2001):

• approved the following meetings outside Strasbourg and Paris:

• Committee on the Environment and Agriculture in Brussels on 5 April 2001;

• Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography in Baku from 17-19 May 2001;

• Committee on Economic Affairs and Development in Seville from 27-29 May 2001;

• Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee in Prague from 2-4 September 2001;

• asked the Secretariat to carry out a study of suitable meeting facilities for committee meetings in Paris, as well as in Brussels and Vienna;

• approved the meetings of the Presidential Committee in Helsinki from 6-7 May 2001 to meet the Finnish President, and in Paris from 6-10 July 2001 to represent the Assembly at the annual session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly;

• authorised the following official visits of Assembly representatives:

• Mrs Kautto (Finland, SOC), MM Akcali (Turkey, EDG) and Connor (Ireland, EPP/CD) to Kosovo probably from 3-6 April 2001, and Mrs Poptodorova (Bulgaria, SOC) to Kosovo probably from 29-30 March 2001, in the framework of the preparation of the reports on Kosovo;

• Mr Jurgens (Netherlands, SOC) to Bosnia and Herzegovina in March 2001 to prepare his report on compensation on non-Slovenian investors in the Ljubljanska Banka;

• Mrs Ojuland (Estonia, LDR) and Lord Kirkhill (United Kingdom, SOC) to Monaco on 19 and 20 March 2001 within the framework of Monaco’s request for Council of Europe membership;

• agreed to hold its next meetings as follows:

• Strasbourg, Monday 23 April 2001 at 8.30 am

• Strasbourg, Friday 27 April 2001 at 8.30 am

• Istanbul, Tuesday 22 May 2001 at 9.30 am.

• Strasbourg, Monday 25 June 2001 at 8.30 am

• Strasbourg, Friday 29 June 2001 at 8.30 am

• Paris, Friday 7 September 2001 at 9.30 am.

 

Horst Schade / Agnès Nollinger

 

APPENDIX

List of members of the Joint Working Group on Chechnya

The Parliamentary Assembly will be represented by:

Political Affairs Committee:

Lord Judd (United Kingdom, SOC),

László Surjan (Hungary, EPP/CD) and

Juris Sinka (Latvia, EDG);

Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights:

Rudolf Bindig (Germany, SOC),

Lilli Nabholz-Haidegger (Switzerland, LDR) and

Michael Spindelegger (Austria, EPP/CD);

Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography:

Mats Einarsson (Sweden, UEL).

The Duma will be represented by:

Dmitry Rogozin, leader of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly, (People’s Deputies),

Valentin Nikitin, Chair of the Duma’s Chechnya Committee, (Agro-industrial Faction),

Andrei Nikolaev, Chair of the Duma’s Defence Committee (People’s Deputies),

Eduard Vorobiev, Deputy chair of the Duma’s Defence Committee (Union of Right Forces),

Hapisat Gamzatova, member of the Russian delegation to the Assembly, member of the Duma’s Chechnya Committee (Communist Party),

Nikolai Kovalev, member of the Russian delegation to the Assembly (Motherland - All Russia),

Ashot Sarkissian, member of the Duma’s Chechnya Committee (Unity),

Leonid Slutsky, member of the Russian delegation to the Assembly (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia),

Nickolay Shaklein, member of the Russian delegation to the Assembly (Russian Regions),

Alexandr Shishlov, member of the Russian delegation to the Assembly (Yabloko).