PACE SUMMER SESSION KICKS OFF IN STRASBOURG

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.06.2008 13:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ An urgent debate on the functioning of democratic
institutions in Turkey, to which Turkey’s Foreign Minister has been
invited, a general policy debate on the situation in China, and a
special debate on the state of democracy in Europe, involving guest
speakers from civil society, are among the highlights of the summer
session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)
taking place in Strasbourg from 23 to 27 June 2008. Serbian President
Boris Tadic will also address the Assembly on Thursday 26 June.

Other topics to be debated include the functioning of democratic
institutions in Azerbaijan, the fight against harm to the environment
in the Black Sea, empowering women in a modern, multicultural society
and the abandonment of children at birth.

There is also a proposal to hold an urgent debate on the functioning
of democratic institutions in Armenia – but only if the Assembly’s
co-rapporteurs judge, after visiting the country on 16-17 June, that
the Armenian authorities have made insufficient progress in fulfilling
the Assembly’s demands following the February 2008 post-electoral
violence.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt will present the communication
from the Committee of Ministers, the Council of Europe’s executive
body currently presided by Sweden, on Monday 23 June and answer
parliamentarians’ questions.

The Assembly will finalize its agenda only at the opening of the
session.