FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE ASSEMBLY

 

Secretariat of the Assembly

 

Synopsis n° 2001/084

3 July 2001

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The Bureau of the Assembly, meeting on 29 June 2001 in Strasbourg with Lord Russell-Johnston in the Chair,

• with regard to the follow-up to Resolution 1255 (2001) on the situation in “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, took note that an ad hoc committee had been set up by the Political Affairs Committee in accordance with paragraph 14, which would travel to the region in mid-July in order to allow the committee to report back to the Assembly at its September Part-Session;

• with regard to the follow-up to Resolution 1253 (2001) on the abolition of the death penalty in Council of Europe observer States, took note that the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and the Political Affairs Committee intend to enter into a dialogue on this issue with parliamentarians from the United States Congress and the Japanese Diet before the end of the year;

• accepted the invitation by the President of the German Bundestag to hold the spring session of the Assembly in May 2003 in Berlin;

• with regard to the observation of the presidential elections in Belarus on 9 September 2001:

• invited the President to write a joint letter with the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE (PA OSCE) to the President of Belarus raising a number of concerns for free and fair presidential elections,

• authorised the Assembly representatives in the Parliamentary troika (MM Behrendt, Davis and Svoboda) to take part in consultations with the PA OSCE and the European Parliament (EP) on whether to observe the presidential elections;

• decided in principle to set up an ad hoc committee for the observation of the Kosovo-wide elections on 17 November 2001, including a possible pre-electoral mission;

• confirmed the observation of the second round of elections in Albania on 8 July;

• approved in an amended form a draft letter by the President to the Presidents of the two chambers of the parliament of Kazakhstan concerning a possible co-operation agreement;

• endorsed the analysis of the use made by the Assembly’s political groups of their allocations for 2000;

• approved the final apportionment of the allocation to political groups for 2001;

• drew up the list of candidates for the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) in respect of the Netherlands and Switzerland and forwarded them to the Committee of Ministers;

• approved the changes to the composition of the Monitoring Committee, subject to ratification by the Assembly;

• decided to modify the regulations relating to the distribution and classification of Assembly documents;

• proposed the following reference to committee for ratification by the Assembly:

Motion for recommendation on the treatment and cure of spinal injury (Doc. 9154): for report to the Committee on Social, Health and Family Affairs;

• took note of the legal information provided by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe concerning the voting rights of the people living in Gibraltar, and decided to resume consideration of the reference of the Motion for a Resolution on this subject at a future meeting;

• approved the following meetings outside Strasbourg and Paris:

• sub-committee on children (of the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee) to New York (United Nations) from 19-20 September 2001;

• sub-committee on international economic relations (of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development) to Kaliningrad (Russia) from 12-13 October 2001;

• ad hoc sub-committee of 5 members of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography to Yalta before the end of 2001;

• appointed the following Assembly representatives for official activities:

• MM Behrendt and Svoboda, as rapporteurs on the situation in Belarus, to attend the meeting organised by the PA OSCE in Paris on this subject on 5-6 July 2001;

• Mr McNamara (United Kingdom, SOC) and a representative of the Political Affairs Committee, at the cost of their respective national parliaments, to attend the World Conference against Racism, in Durban (South Africa) during the first week of September 2001;

• confirmed its next meetings for the year 2001 as follows:

• 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, Wednesday 7 November 2001 at 3 pm

• Paris, Monday 10 December 2001 at 9.30 am;

• agreed on its schedule of meetings for the year 2002 as follows:

• Paris, Monday 14 January 2002 at 9.30 am

• Strasbourg, Monday 21 January 2002, 8.30 am

• Strasbourg, Friday 25 January, 8.30 am

• Paris, Tuesday 5 March, 3 pm

• Strasbourg, Monday 22 April, 8.30 am

• Strasbourg, Friday 26 April, 8.30 am

• Lucerne, Tuesday 28 May (time to be confirmed)

• Strasbourg, Monday 24 June, 8.30 am

• Strasbourg, Friday, 28 June, 8.30 am

• Paris, Friday, 6 September, 9.30 am

• Strasbourg, Monday 23 September, 8.30 am

• Strasbourg, Friday 27 September, 8.30 am

• Strasbourg, Wednesday 6 November, 3 pm (subject to confirmation)

• Paris, Friday, 6 December, 9.30 am.

 

Horst Schade / Agnès Nollinger