FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE ASSEMBLY
Secretariat of the Assembly
Synopsis n° 2001/095
12 September 2001
The Bureau of the Assembly, meeting on 7 September 2001 in Paris with Lord Russell-Johnston in the Chair,
observed a minute’s silence in memory of Mr Urbanczyk, a member of the Polish delegation, who died accidentally on 7 August 2001;
adopted the agenda and drew up the draft order of business of the fourth part of the 2001 Ordinary Session of the Assembly (Strasbourg, 24-28 September 2001), subject to finalisation by the President and the Secretary General of the Assembly;
confirmed the proposal that the “monitoring of obligations and commitments of member States by the Parliamentary Assembly and the Committee of Ministers” would be the main item of the Joint Committee meeting (Thursday, 27 September 2001), and that other matters could be raised under the item “other business”;
appointed Mr Medeiros Ferreira (Portugal) as its rapporteur for the Progress Report;
asked the Secretary General of the Assembly to facilitate the presence of representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus during the September Part-Session, on the basis of the arrangements made for the June 2001 Part-Session;
with regard to the follow-up to Resolution 1240 (2001) and Recommendation 1498 (2001) on the conflict in the Chechen Republic, took note of the conclusions of the PACE/Duma Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting in Strasbourg on 29 June, that the group would carry out a visit to the Russian Federation from 12-16 September, and will organise a consultation in Strasbourg from 21-22 September on a political solution to the conflict, and agreed to hold a debate on the progress report by the Group during the Assembly’s September Part-Session;
approved the report by its ad hoc committee on the legislative elections in Albania (24 June, 8, 22 and 29 July and 19 August 2001) and authorised its declassification;
approved the composition of its ad hoc committee for the observation of the presidential elections in Belarus on 9 September 2001;
set up an ad hoc committee of up to 30 members for the observation of the Kosovo-wide elections on 17 November 2001;
drew up the lists of candidates for the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) in respect of Austria and Denmark and forwarded them to the Committee of Ministers;
proposed the following references, transmissions and modifications of references to committees for ratification by the Assembly:
Motion for a recommendation on the seizure and destruction of Azerbaijani cultural heritage (Doc. 9147): transmission to the Committee of Culture, Science and Educationfor information;
Motion for a recommendation on the ecological situation in the Republic of Azerbaijan (mountainous Karabakh, Shusha, Lachin, Gubatli, Zengilan, Kelebecer, Agdam, Fizuli, Cabrail) (Doc. 9148): transmission to the Committee on the Environment and Agriculturefor information;
Motion for a recommendation on the right of national minorities to create and use their own media in the Council of Europe member states (Doc. 9151): to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights for report, in order to take it into account as part of its coming report on the rights of minorities (Order n° 513 (1996)) and transmission to the Committee on Culture, Science and Educationfor information;
Motion for a recommendation on the situation of refugees and displaced people in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Doc. 9152): to the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography for report;
Motion for a resolution on the law regarding the Hungarians living in neighbouring countries, adopted on 19 June 2001 by the Hungarian Parliament (Doc. 9153) and Motion for a resolution on transfrontier co-operation in preserving the identity of national minorities (Doc. 9163): to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights for one report to the Standing Committee andto the Political Affairs Committee for opinion;
Motion for a recommendation on the protection of sign language in member states (Doc. 9156): to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights for report to the Standing Committee and to the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee for opinion;
Motion for a resolution on the contribution of the Council of Europe to the future constitution making process of the European Union (Doc. 9157): to the Political Affairs Committee for report and to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights for opinion;
Motion for a recommendation on tax incentives for cultural heritage conservation (Doc. 9158): to the Committee on Culture, Science and Education for report to the Standing Committee andto the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development for opinion;
Motion for a recommendation on the situation of lesbians and gays in sports in member states (Doc. 9159): transmission to the Committee on Culture, Science and Educationfor information;
Motion for a resolution on the social implications of enlargement of the European Union (Doc. 9160): to the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee for report;
Motion for a recommendation on policies for the integration of immigrants in Council of Europe member states (Doc. 9161): to the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography for report;
Motion for a resolution on candidates to the European Court of Human Rights (Doc. 9162): to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights for report to the Standing Committee and to the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men for opinion;
Motion for a resolution on the situation of people deported from Georgia in 1944 (Meskhetians) and currently residing in Stavropol Krai (Russian Federation) (Doc. 9164): transmission, for information, to the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee), as part of the monitoring procedure of the Federation of Russia, to the Political Affairs Committee, as part of the report on the situation in Georgia and the entire Caucasus region (Doc. 8958, Reference No 2569 of 26 January 2001) and to the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography;
Motion for a resolution on the ratification of the European Code of Social Security (Doc. 9165): to the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee for report to the Standing Committee;
Motion for a resolution on crimes of honour (Doc. 9166): to the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men for report and to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights for opinion;
Motion for a resolution on the situation of the Orthodox Church believers in Estonia (Doc. 9167):transmission, for information, to the Committee on Culture, Science and Education and to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights;
Motion for a resolution on freedom of movement in member states of the Council of Europe for holders of temporary residence permits in a member state (Doc. 9168): to the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography for report andto the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights for opinion;
Motion for a resolution on the lack of efficient legal protection in Ukraine (intimidation of Mr Yeliashkevich, member of parliament) (Doc. 9169): transmission, for information, to the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee) and to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights;
Motion for a resolution on euthanasia (Doc. 9170): to the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee for report andto the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights for opinion;
Request for an opinion on the draft recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member states on “Participation of citizens in local public life” and draft explanatory report (Doc. 9172): to the Committee on Environment and Agriculture for report;
11th general report on the CPT’s activities (Doc. 9187): transmission for information to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights;
agreed to defer consideration of the Motion for an order on the voting rights of the people living in Gibraltar (Doc. 9065) to its next meeting in order to obtain supplementary legal information from the Secretary General of the Council of Europe;
agreed to extend the deadline for the preparation of the report on the rehabilitation policies for persons with disabilities (Doc. 7865) until 2003;
approved the following meeting outside Strasbourg and Paris:
sub-committee on sustainable development (of the Committee on the Environment and Agriculture) in Marrakech from 31 October-2 November 2001 during a parliamentary round-table organised within the framework of the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (29 October-9 November 2001);
sub-committee on tourism development (of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development) at the headquarters of the World Tourism Organisation in Madrid in 2002;
appointed the following Assembly representatives for official activities:
MM. Bársony, Blaauw and Toshev for a Parliamentary Conference of the Stability Pact in Brussels from 17-18 September 2001;
MM. Behrendt and Davis for contacts with the US Congress in Washington D.C. in October 2001 in relation to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change;
Mr Tiuri to take part in the World Conference on Energy, Buenos-Aires, Argentina, from 22-25 October 2001, with no cost to the Assembly;
confirmed its future meetings as follows:
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
Paris, Monday 14 January 2002 at 9.30 am
Strasbourg, Monday 21 January 2002 at 8.30 am
Strasbourg, Friday 25 January 2002 at 8.30 am.
Horst Schade / Agnčs Nollinger