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Council of Europe Committee of Ministers determine candidates for the CoE Secretary General

13 May 2009 13:05 (UTC +04:00)

Madrid. Fuad Gulubeyli â€“APA. Ministers for Foreign Affairs and representatives of the 47 Council of Europe member states adopted Protocol No. 14bis to the European Convention on Human Rights at the 119th session of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers in Madrid on May 12.
According to APA European bureau the Protocol will increase the European Court of Human Rightsâ€™ short-term capacity to process applications.
The new protocol will allow, pending entry into force of Protocol No. 14, the immediate and provisional application of two procedural elements of Protocol No. 14 with respect to those states that express their consent. A single judge will be able to reject plainly inadmissible applications, whereas now this requires a decision by a committee of three judges.

The competence of three-judge committees will be extended to declare applications admissible and decide on their merits in well-founded and repetitive cases, where there already is a well-established case law of the Court. Currently, these cases are handled by chambers of seven judges.

Protocol No.14 bis will be opened for signature on 27 May and it will need the ratification by three states to enter into force.

The application of Protocol 14bis, though not providing a definitive answer to the CourtÂ´s problems, is estimated to increase the efficiency of the Court by 20-25%. The Ministers stated that the entry into force of Protocol No. 14 should remain the first priority.

The Ministers decided to transmit to the Parliamentary Assembly for appointment to the post of Secretary General, the candidatures of Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz and ThorbjÃ¸rn Jagland, respectively sponsored by the governments of Poland and Norway.