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CoE Committee of Ministers chairman: Racism, intolerance pose threat to peace, democracy in Europe

11 October 2016 17:24 (UTC +04:00)

Strasbourg. Fuad Gulubeyli – APA. Jürgen Ligi, Estonia’s foreign minister and chairman of the CoE Committee of Ministers, has made a reporting speech at the plenary meeting of the PACE autumn session, APA’s Europe correspondent reported.

Ganira Pashayeva, member of Azerbaijan’s delegation to PACE, asked Jürgen Ligi a question on behalf of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

“Mr Chairman, different European counties are faced with growing radicalism. People are being negatively affected by radical statements from various political parties and politicians. As a consequence, radical, anti-migrant, anti-Islamic, and anti-Semitic tendencies gain power in parts of Europe. Unfortunately, such radical parties win more votes in elections. Is the Committee of Ministers seriously concerned by the growing radicalism in Europe? What actions is the Committee of Ministers going to take in order to combat these radical tendencies and strengthen multiculturalism in Europe?”

Jürgen Ligi confirmed that indeed racism, intolerance, extremism, and xenophobia are raging across Europe.

“Yes, you’re right. Regrettably, we see racism, intolerance, extremism and xenophobia growing in many of member states. Even prior to the emergence of the migrant problem, xenophobic and populist circles had been gaining dominance in many countries. Such a tendency is without doubt a threat to peace and democratic security in Europe. It’s of the priorities of the Committee of Ministers to combat xenophobia, intolerance, extremism, and racism. We also use special mechanisms to fight radicalism, which ultimately leads to terrorism. These [mechanisms] include our different action plans with states and cooperation with certain CoE bodies dealing with these issues. We need to use all the tools at our disposals at the level of PACE and the Committee of Ministers so that we can put up a tougher fight against negative tendencies of this kind,” said Jürgen Ligi.