Speech by Mr. SCHIEDER, President of the Parliamentary Assembly at the opening of the fourth part-session

(Strasbourg, 23 September 2002)

In the recent weeks, nature has taught Europe a harsh lesson. The floods in Central Europe – in Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary, followed by torrential rain and inundations in the South of France and most recently in Spain – have shown what happens when we try to control nature and treat it irresponsibly or without respect.

If the deluge can certainly be attributed at least partly to the whim of the elements, it would be all too easy to dismiss this catastrophe as entirely a natural phenomenon. A large part of the responsibility is linked to human intervention in the environment – from global warming to incoherent regulation of water flow.

If our first reaction should be one of greater humility and respect for nature, the second should certainly be to give priority to closer international co-operation. When it comes to the environment, man-made borders are of little use or relevance.

Thirdly, faced with the extent of the damage in different areas of Europe, we also need to show greater solidarity. Many of the countries hardest hit during the recent floods will find it difficult to meet on their own the cost of repairing water damage and taking precautions to prevent future calamities.

The European Union has reacted quickly and allocated substantial sums to help the countries concerned. Our organisation does not have the means to match this effort in financial terms – even though the Council of Europe Development Bank will contribute to the reconstruction effort – but it can do its part of the work in strengthening European co-operation in the field of the environment.

As an organisation covering virtually the whole of the continent, the Council of Europe should be the engine behind European co-operation in the protection of the environment and should help us to face future threats of natural disasters in a more efficient way. We must do more than we have done in the recent past, and the Assembly should ask the Committee of Ministers to re-examine its priorities accordingly.

The Council of Europe has a special role to play when it comes to issues directly concerning all countries on our continent. The environment is one of them, but there are others − including Europe’s response to American policy on Iraq, or the International Criminal Court – which we shall probably debate under urgent procedure this week.

Nobody is denying the importance of the European Union in this respect. Its economic importance and emerging political role are making it an interlocutor that carries weight on the global stage. But it does not have the automatic mandate to speak in the name of the entire continent! For the time being, the big round table in the Justus Lipsius building of the EU Council of Ministers has only fifteen chairs around it – and there are almost fifty countries in Europe – forty-four of which are already members of the Council of Europe.

The same could be said for other issues as well. Several weeks ago, the United States requested all Council of Europe member states which had ratified the Statute of the International Criminal Court to sign bilateral accords guaranteeing US citizens immunity from prosecution by the Court.

The matter is under consideration – in Brussels. When the decision is reached among the fifteen, the candidates for EU membership are expected to align themselves with the EU decision. The others will be left on their own.

This is why this Assembly is asked to hold a debate on this subject. It is a matter which concerns us all and on which we should all have a say before any decision is taken. This is not about institutional competition, it is about democracy!

Moreover, the International Criminal Court and America’s controversial demands directly concern the substance of the Council of Europe’s work – international justice, legal co-operation and human rights. Nobody else in Europe has the knowledge and the experience to speak on these matters with the authority and the legitimacy of the Council of Europe – yet our organisation is virtually absent from the debate!

This will be a busy week for relations between Europe’s two foremost institutions. Tomorrow, and for the very first time, the Assembly and the European Parliament will hold a joint session on the theme of “the development of Europe as an area of freedom, security and justice”. At the level of the executive, a quadripartite meeting between the two institutions will take place a day later.

On the margins of the joint parliamentary session, there will be no less than seven meetings between the Assembly and European Parliament committees, on issues ranging from Chechnya to equal opportunities between women and men.

On the subject of the latter, I wish to share a concern which I had when I took a look at the composition of the national delegations to our Assembly. We should certainly apply to ourselves what we are preaching to others. Some of the more recent delegations are almost exclusively male, and – with parliamentary elections coming up in several of our member states - I should certainly hope that this would no longer be the case in the future.

We have a full week ahead, perhaps fuller than ever before. In what I believe should be the general practice for all future sessions, we have several important reports on Friday morning. They concern Belarus and an anti-racism protocol to the cyber-crime convention, but also two reports dealing with the fight against domestic violence and against the sexual exploitation of children. I hope to see a full hemicycle. Anything else would be disrespectful of the sensitive subjects on the agenda and may compromise the Assembly’s efforts to do something about them. If your travel arrangements do not permit you to stay until Friday, there is still time to change them. This is a part of our responsibility as members of this House!