Tuesday, 30 June 2009, Strasbourg
Participation of the Ordinary Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Mr. Oliver Sambevski , Head of Delegation and Mr. Igor Ivanovski, Member, took part in the Third part of the Ordinary Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, from 22 to 26 June 2009 in Strasbourg, France.
Although scheduled to elect the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly decided not to include this item on its agenda. The election of the Secretary General is expected to take place during the October Ordinary Session, after the dispute between the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly on the procedure has been resolved.
The parliamentarians also discussed the Report on Europe's forgotten people: protecting the human rights of long-term displaced persons. Mr. Sambevski and Mr. Ivanovski submitted an amendment to the Report in which the member states are called to revise and amend the existing laws in order to remove all legal impediments for integration of the displaced persons.
The highlights of the summer session included the addresses of the President of Ireland Mrs. Mary McAleese, the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Mr. Borut Pahor, the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Mr. Thomas Mirow and others. The main topics of discussion were the situation in Iran, the challenges of the financial crisis to the world economic institutions, the state of human rights in Europe and the progress of the Assembly's monitoring procedure, etc.
During the session, Committee meetings were held and on the meeting of the Political Affairs Committee, Mr. Sambevski was appointed as a Rapporteur on Expansion of Democracy by lowering the voting age to 16.