FOR THE ATTENTION OF MEMBERS OF THE POLITICAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
Secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly
Synopsis No. 2001 / 124
29 October 2001
The Sub-Committee on relations with non-member countries (of the Political Affairs Committee), meeting in Ottawa and Montebello on 22 and 23 October 2001, under the chairmanship of Mr Jan Bergqvist (Sweden, SOC):
in the framework of a Seminar on “Democratic Reform: Challenges for Parliamentarians”, organised jointly by the Sub-Committee on the Relations with Non-Member Countries and the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association, discussed the following issues:
Financing of political parties and electoral reform, and heard presentations by Mrs Vlasta Stepova, Rapporteur of the Political Affairs Committee on financing of political parties, Mr Georges Clerfayt, Rapporteur of the Political Affairs Committee on code of good practice in electoral matters, Mr Jean-Pierre Kingsley, Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, and Professor Jon Pammett (Department of Political Science, Carleton University);
Enhancing citizen participation, and heard presentations by Mr Andreas Gross, Vice-Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Strenghtening of Democratic Institutions (of the Political Affairs Committee), Professor Brooke Jeffrey (Department of Political Science, Concordia University), Professor Jane Jenson (Department of Political Science, University of Montreal), and Professor Andrew Cohen (School of Journalism, Carleton University);
Parliamentary control of international institutions, and heard statements by Mr Latchezar Toshev, Rapporteur of the Political Affairs Committee on the parliamentary control of international institutions, and Mr Warren Allmand, President of the Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development;
held a joint meeting with the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, during which it heard a presentation by Mr Terry Davis, Chairman of the Political Affairs Committee and Rapporteur on democracies facing terrorism and by Mr Claude Frey, Rapporteur of the Political Affairs Committee on the situation in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia;
decided to hold its next meeting in Strasbourg, during the Assembly’s January part-session (21-25 January 2002),
Marja Ruotanen, Markus Adelsbach