Secretariat of the Assembly

            The Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee), meeting in Paris on 8 September 2000 with Mr Mota Amaral in the Chair:

-                  Croatia (co-rapporteurs: Mr Jaskiernia, Poland, SOC, and Ms Stoyanova, Bulgaria, EPP/CD): unanimously approved a draft resolution and a draft recommendation;

-                   Ukraine (co-rapporteurs: Ms Severinsen, Denmark, LDR, and Ms Wohlwend, Liechtenstein, EPP/CD): regretted that the costs of participation of one of the members of the Ukrainian delegation in the present meeting were not borne by the Verkhovna Rada, agreed to inform the President of the Assembly of this fact; approved a preliminary draft report subject to some additions and asked the Chairman to transmit it to the Ukrainian authorities (President of the Republic, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and Chairman of the delegation) for comments within three months;

-                  Russia (co-rapporteurs: Mr Atkinson, United Kingdom, EDG, and Mr Bindig, Germany, SOC): took note of the letter addressed on 26 June by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to the Chairman-in-office of the Ministers’ Deputies seizing the Committee of Ministers under its 1994 Declaration on compliance with commitments accepted by member states of the Council of Europe, with regard to the situation in Chechnya, and authorised the co-rapporteurs to make a fact-finding visit to the country from 15 to 18 October 2000;

-                  Latvia (co-rapporteurs: Mr Davis, United Kingdom, SOC, and Mr Jansson, Finland, LDR): asked the co-rapporteurs to finalise the draft report in the light of the regulatory acts of the State language law which had been promulgated recently by the Latvian government;

-                  Post-monitoring dialogue (Estonia, Romania, Czech Republic, Lithuania): decided to devote an upcoming meeting to this item and accepted (subject to authorisation of the Bureau) an invitation of the Estonian delegation to hold such meeting in Estonia on dates to be agreed;

-           decided to hold its next meeting during the next part session (25-29 September 2000) in Strasbourg.

 

Egbert Ausems, Guy Dufour, Despina Chatzivassiliou