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Slovenia to take over from Spain as Chair of Council of Europe Committee of Ministers today

12 May 2009 09:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Viktoria Dementieva â€“ APA. The 119th session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe will start in Madrid today, APA reports quoting the official website of the Council of Europe. The session will bring together Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the 47 Council of Europe member states. The meeting will be opened by the Spanish Minister and Chair of the Committee of Ministers, Miguel Angel Moratinos, Council Secretary General Terry Davis and HRH the Prince of the Asturias. Guaranteeing the long-term effectiveness of the control system of the European Convention on Human Rights is one of the main items on the agenda of the 119th session. The ministers will have the opportunity to discuss "The state of democracy in Europe. Belarus", and the conflict in Georgia. Lastly, they will adopt a resolution on the list of candidates for the post of Secretary General of the Council of Europe, to be forwarded to the Parliamentary Assembly.
The candidates for the post of Secretary General of the Council of Europe are former Prime Minister of Norway ThorbjÃ¸rn Jagland, former Prime Minister of Poland Vlodzimej Cimoshevic, Belgian MP Lyuk van der Brand and Hungarian MP Matias Yorshun.
At the close of the session, Slovenia will take over from Spain as Chair of the Committee of Ministers for the next six months.