Europe

Home page

Europe

LluÃs Maria de Puig: â€œThe main problem concerning the election of Secretary General is that the internal procedure of the Council of Europe is commented on differentlyâ€

22 June 2009 13:06 (UTC +04:00)

Strasbourg. Fuad Gulubayli â€“ APA. Summer session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has started in Strasbourg. APAâ€™s Europe bureau reports that before the plenary meeting PACE President LluÃs Maria de Puig held a press conference. He said PACE voting might be held in the plenary session to postpone the election for post of CE Secretary General.
â€œIf none of the parliamentarians protest, we may put the Bureauâ€™s decision to the vote in the plenary meeting. Moreover, we decided to discuss as the extraordinary issue the recent situation in Iran, not the election of Secretary General. So, no discussions will be held concerning the election of Secretary General,â€ he said.

LluÃs Maria de Puig said head of CE Committee of Ministers, Foreign Minister of Slovenia Samuel Zbogar would report to PACE about the activity of the CE Committee of Ministers and he would discuss the election of Secretary General together with Samuel Zbogar.
â€œI have expressed my opinion about it several times. The main problem is that the internal procedure of the Council of Europe is commented on differently. PACE considers that the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers has not properly obeyed the procedure, rules have been violated. I think this is more legal than a political problem. I am sure that no institutional crisis will occur inside the Council of Europe and the organization will continue its work,â€ he said.

Touching on the main points of the PACE summer session LluÃs Maria de Puig said the discussions on the situation in Belarus were important.
â€œDecision will very likely be passed at the session to grant special guest status to Belarus. Decisions will be likely passed on granting special statuses to the other neighboring countries. As you know, North Africa and several Central Asia countries are neither members of the Council of Europe, nor have the status of observer. We want these countries to be granted partner status for the sake of democracy,â€ he said.