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PACE and Council of Europe Committee of Ministers quarrel over the candidates for the CE Secretary General

27 April 2009 13:15 (UTC +04:00)

He said CE Committee of Ministers made unprecedented decision in the history of Council of Europe. â€œThe Committee of Ministers demonstrated different position. According to the Charter of the organization, the Committee of Ministers had to report to PACE during the election of the candidates. I donâ€™t understand the Committeeâ€™s haste. PACE is not welcoming it. Before making the decision, the Committee of Ministers had to wait until the meeting of joint commission of PACE and Committee of Ministersâ€.

Luis Maria de Puig said the organization faced with special situation. â€œThe final decision of the Committee of Ministers on the candidate for Secretary General will be passed on May 12 at the meeting of the Foreign Ministers Council in Madrid. Currently PACE canâ€™t show its position over the non-existent document. It will need to wait until the PACE discussions. PACE will demand to include the isolated candidates in the list again. It is a probability.
I cannot say beforehand what PACEâ€™s position will be. We want all the candidates meeting the criteria to be listened. Why has the Committee of Ministers isolated the candidates nominated by the PACE? The nominated candidates meet the criteria. I think PACEâ€™s requirement will allow the parliamentarians to make the real choice. The other issue is that there are no women among the candidates. As you know, candidates to the post of Secretary General are nominated by the states. This issue will also be considered during the discussions on the post of Secretary General. PACE has no final position now. Draft resolution will be adopted during the emergency discussions,â€ he said.

He added that the criteria put forward by Junker from Luxemburg were not the procedure of choice. Junker offered to choose the candidates to the post of CE Secretary General among the persons, who held high posts and was confided in their countries.
â€œThe unacceptable side of the issue is that the Committee of the Ministers and PACE do not hold discussions. This is not a decent, good position for PACE> these issues will be clarified during the emergency discussions on Wednesday. By taking a stance on the candidates to the post of Secretary General last week, CE Committee of Ministers did not put its position from a viewpoint of cooperation with us,â€ he said.