17th Plenary Session of the Congress

Strasbourg, 13 October 2009

Speech by Alan MEALE (Royaume-Uni), Président de la Commission de l'environnement, de l'agriculture et des questions territoriales de l'Assemblée parlementaire, au nom du Président de l'Assemblée parlementaire du Conseil de l'Europe

President, members of the Congress, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honour for me to address you here today in this Chamber on behalf of our President, Mr Lluis Maria de Puig, who is very sorry that he cannot be with you today. As you know he lays great store by the co-operation that has been established between the Congress and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe over the past years.

The autumn part-Session of the Parliamentary Assembly, which took place some ten days ago, also presented the opportunity to celebrate the 60th anniversary of our organisation.

But, as our President said, once the celebrations are over, we will have to ask ourselves what we intend to do, what our place is in the European architecture and above all whether we have the necessary means to achieve our ambitions.

The world is in the throes of an unprecedented economic and financial crisis. In Europe, some conflicts have not yet been resolved,  making it difficult for us to achieve our aim of a strong, united Europe.

Our part-session addressed all the major current European and global issues, namely the situation a year after the war between Russia and Georgia, the situation of human rights defenders in the North Caucasus and the situation facing the European Court of Human Rights as a result of Russia’s failure to ratify Protocol 14 to the European Convention on Human Rights, even if the Russian Duma recently gave us a glimmer of hope.

The routine debate on the activities of the OECD took on a completely different dimension this year against the background of economic and financial crisis.

Mr Angel Gurria, Secretary General of the OECD, said in his address that even if the world economy appeared to be stabilising, it did not mean that the crisis was over and that we needed to combine our efforts to prevent a new crisis of this type. He also urged member states to do everything possible to place their economies on a sounder footing. Finally, we look forward to the possible accession of Chilli, Estonia, Israel, Russia and Slovenia to the OECD, subject, of course, to their complying fully with the principles which govern us - democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

I would also like to mention the very important debate on the future of the Council of Europe. We are all aware that our organisation is at a crossroads and that there is an urgent need for our political leaders to show political resolve to ensure unwavering support for the Council of Europe in the performance of its statutory functions. With this in mind, the report on the future of the Council of Europe, which has just been adopted, asks the Committee of Ministers not only to strengthen dialogue with the Parliamentary Assembly but also to strengthen the political scope of the Committee of Ministers’ ministerial sessions so that each session becomes a major political event at which substantive political decisions are taken. As you can see, the purpose of the report is to provide some food for thought on the evolving role of the Council of Europe, to identify problems in its functioning, and to suggest measures that can be taken to ensure that the Organisation remains a key institution in the process of building a united Europe.

A considerable amount of time during the part-session was given over to the debate on the environment. I will refer to this debate again tomorrow when we take a closer look at this issue.

However, I would like to thank the Congress, and its President ad interim, Ian Micallef, for the message it sent in support of the decision taken by the Parliamentary Assembly to propose an additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights on the right to live in a healthy environment.

The President of our Assembly said that this was a historic decision and pointed out that the question of human rights had been placed at the heart of the debate on the environment and that we must recognise that the environment and human rights have become two inextricably linkedsubjects.

Nevertheless, we should not delude ourselves: the real work begins now for we still have to persuade our governments that it is necessary to draft such a Protocol. I am sure that the Congress and all its members will help us in this task. At all events, we rely on your support.

On a completely different subject, I would like to inform you that last weekend we held the ceremony to award the Europe Prize to Ankara. After Istanbul and Bursa, Ankara is the third Turkish city to receive this award on account of its dense network of international contacts and the many twin-town projects it has initiated.

I attended the ceremony and I was most impressed by the way in which the City of Ankara organised the event and by the enthusiasm of its inhabitants. This type of event is definitely excellent publicity for our organisation.

Finally, I would like to finish my speech by mentioning the next Conference of European Ministers responsible for Local and Regional Government, which will be held in Utrecht on 16 and 17 November and at which the Assembly will be represented by Mr de Puig as well as Mr Doric, Chairman of our Sub-Committee on Local and Regional Democracy, and myself.

In the course of the Conference, we will, of course, underline the importance which we - that is you the local and regional elected representatives of Europe and we parliamentarians - attach to the independence of our respective bodies. It is crucial that we fully maintain our roles. As we very rightly say in the common position we have adopted, the structure of the Council of Europe is based on three distinct but complementary pillars, each of which has, at its own level, an unparalleled acquis in the field of local and regional democracy. This acquis can only be preserved if we allow each pillar its freedom, its prerogatives and its own means of action.

We will therefore reassert out reservations regarding the establishment of a single Council of Europe spokesperson for local and regional democracy, for the Assembly and the Congress already have spokespersons, namely our respective Presidents. 

Finally, I deeply regret the decision taken regarding the drafting of a reference framework on regional democracy.

You know how much importance we attached to this question and that President de Puig himself invested a lot of effort to ensure that a European Charter of Regional Democracy would be drafted. The alternative that has been proposed is a poor substitute and you can rely on the Assembly to continue the battle, in particular by pointing out that the declaration made by the Ministers in Valencia in October 2007 noted that the regional level has gained importance in numerous countries as a level for political decision and management.

Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends,

I do not wish to take up any more of your time as you have a great deal to discuss and I wish you an excellent session and trust that our co-operation will continue to grow over the coming years.