FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE ASSEMBLY
Secretariat of the Assembly
Synopsis n° 2001/057
4 May 2001
The Bureau of the Assembly, meeting on 27 April 2001 in Strasbourg with Lord Russell-Johnston in the Chair, and then Mr Terry Davis,
updated the agenda of the meeting of the Standing Committee which will take place in Istanbul on 22-23 May 2001;
took note that Professor R. Bernhardt, former President of the European Court of Human Rights and Mr R. Pekkanen, former judge, have been appointed eminent lawyers in charge of drawing up the report on the conformity of the legal order of the FRY with Council of Europe standards;
asked the Secretary General of the Assembly to facilitate the presence of representatives of the National Assembly and of the non-parliamentary opposition of Belarus during the June part-session, on the basis of the arrangements made for the April 2001 part-session;
heard a report on the consultation meeting for the budget 2002 between the delegations of the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly and instructed the President of the Assembly to contact the chairpersons of the national delegations on this matter;
decided not to follow up the proposal to set up a joint working group between members of the Ukrainian parliamentary delegation and delegations of other member States on the honouring of commitments by Ukraine, in order to avoid any overlap with the Monitoring Committee;
took note that the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights was unable to prepare, within such a short deadline, the opinion on the draft Protocol on Mutual Assistance in Criminal matters, and asked the President of the Assembly to inform the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers and to ask him that in the future a deadline of at least 6 months be foreseen to prepare its opinions;
approved the list of members of the ad hoc committee to observe the legislative elections on 24 June 2001 in Albania and authorised the Secretary General of the Assembly to organise a pre-electoral mission;
agreed to observe the parliamentary elections which will be held in Kosovo in autumn 2001 and instructed the Secretary General of the Assembly to consider the practical arrangements concerning the organisation of these elections, including co-operation with the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the European Parliament;
instructed the President to inform the Bulgarian authorities of the wish expressed by the Assembly to observe the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria on 17 June 2001;
drew up the list of candidates in respect of Luxembourg for the European Committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment (CPT) and forwarded it to the Committee of Ministers;
took note that Mrs Ragnarsdóttir replaces Mr Sinka in the joint working group on Chechnya;
approved, subject to ratification by the Assembly, the following references, transmissions and modifications in references to committees:
Motion for an order on psychiatry and human rights (Doc. 8995): to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and, for opinion, to the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee;
Motion for a resolution on migration connected with trafficking in women and prostitution (Doc. 9003): to the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men and, for opinion, to the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography and to the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee;
Motion for a recommendation on the video surveillance of public areas (Doc. 9008): to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights;
Motion for a resolution on the need to implement Recommendation No. R (2000) 6 of the Committee of Ministers on the status of public officials in Europe (Doc. 9012): to the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development, for report to the Standing Committee;
Motion for a recommendation on the assistance with the economic development of Moldova (Doc. 9019): to the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development, for report to the Standing Committee;
Motion for a resolution on a new agricultural policy (Doc. 9035): to the Committee on the Environment and Agriculture;
approved the following meetings outside Strasbourg and Paris:
Sub-Committee on human rights (of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights) in Salzburg from 30-31 May 2001;
Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in The Hague on 10 September 2001;
Committee on the honouring of obligations and commitments by member States of the Council of Europe in Lisbon on 10-11 May 2001;
Committee on the Environment and Agriculture in Santorini from 4 to 6 June 2001;
Sub-Committee on refugees (of the Committee on Migration, Refugees, and Demography in Belgrade on 5-6 June 2001;
Political Affairs Committee in Liechtenstein from 11-12 June 2001;
Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee in Budapest from 11 to 13 October 2001 ;
appointed the following Assembly representatives for official activities:
Mr Behrendt (Germany, SOC) for the plenary session of the CLRAE in Strasbourg from 29 to 31 May 2001;
Mrs Biga-Friganovic (Croatia, SOC) for a hearing on refugees and displaced persons in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Belgrade from 5-6 June;
Mr Jurgens (Netherlands, SOC) for a fact-finding visit in the framework of the case of compensation for non-Slovenian investors in the former Ljubljanska Banka in Belgrade;
MM Jansson (Finland, LDR) and Gross (Switzerland, SOC) for the OSCE Seminar on Self Government, from 28-31 May in Helsinki and the Åland Islands;
one representative from the Political Affairs Committee and one from the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development for the third Joint meeting of the Baltic Assembly and the Nordic Council in Riga from 31 May to 1 June;
Mr Akçali (Turkey, EDG) for the 17th Plenary Session of the PABSEC General Assembly in Baku from 19-21 June;
MM Bársony (Hungary, SOC), Toshev (Bulgaria, EPP/CD) and Kacin (Slovenia, LDR) respectively for meetings of the following working tables of the Stability Pact: No. I in Ljubljana from 14-15 May, No. III in Zagreb from 2-3 May, No. II in Tirana from 22-23 May;
designated Mr Schieder (Austria, SOC) to represent it at the General Assembly of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (Paris, 6-10 July 2001);
confirmed its next meetings as follows:
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
Strasbourg, Monday 24 September 2001 at 8.30 am
Strasbourg, Friday 28 September 2001 at 8.30 am
Strasbourg, Thursday 8 November 2001 at 3 pm (subject to confirmation).
Horst Schade / Agnès Nollinger