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COMMUNICATION ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS
Mr. President,
Thank you for your warm words of introduction. I would like to congratulate you on your election to the post of the President of the Parliamentary Assembly. I wish you great success in your challenging post. Mr. President, Members of the Assembly, On 8 November 2001 Lithuania undertook Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers. Almost half-way through the term, I am pleased to present you the report on the work of the Committee of Ministers since your Assembly's last part-session four months ago. My address today to this distinguished Assembly follows on the meeting between the Lithuanian Chairmanship and the Political Affairs Committee of the Assembly in Vilnius on 19 November last year, where I presented our Chairmanship programme to the members of the Political Affairs Committee, highlighting four Lithuanian chairmanship priorities: fight against terrorism; support to the enlargement process of the Council of Europe; effectiveness of the functioning of the Council of Europe; and promotion of regional co-operation.During the last four months, the Committee of Ministers and Lithuania has endeavoured to maintain and intensify the impetus given to the Council of Europe by our predecessors of the L-4 group, and most recently Liechtenstein.The need to combat terrorism influenced the activities of the Committee of Ministers greatly. At the last ministerial session the Committee of Ministers adopted a Communiqué on international action against terrorism, which defined three cornerstones for the Council of Europe action: intensifying legal co-operation to combat terrorism, safeguarding fundamental values, investing in democracy, and the terms of reference for a Multidisciplinary Group on international action against Terrorism. The Group will present its report to the session in Vilnius in May 2002. Also, following the Committee of Ministers session, in November the Deputies adopted a reply to your Assembly's Recommendation 1534 (2001) on Democracies facing Terrorism. I presented it to the Political Affairs Committee in Vilnius on 19 November. The Secretary General presented his proposals for encouraging multicultural and inter-religious dialogue within our societies and between Europe and its numerous neighbours. In order to give a follow-up to these proposals, a special working group has been set up. The Parliamentary Assembly and the Committee of Ministers are key partners in the Council of Europe to enable our Organisation to better meet the challenges of the 21st century. The Lithuanian chairmanship has set itself the aim of giving particular attention to co-operation between the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly.The commitment of my country to pursue the unity of Europe has been highlightened yesterday in his address to this Assembly by Mr Artūras Paulauskas, Chairman of the Parliament of Lithuania. I wish to reiterate these words.Mr. President, Members of the Assembly,I welcome the "green light" given by the Assembly today to the accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Council of Europe. I am convinced that the positive decision on the accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be taken by the Committee of Ministers in the near future. On its part, the Committee of Ministers will do its best to encourage the implementation of our fundamental principles in Bosnia and Herzegovina through monitoring and co-operation and assistance programs. The Committee of Ministers continues to pay close attention to the Parliamentary Assembly's activities as part of its examination of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia' applications for membership and in the same time will maintain its efforts to develop co-operation and assistance programmes to facilitate the democratic reform process. The Lithuanian Chairmanship is also addressing the issue of relations between the Council of Europe and Belarus. The resumption of relations between the Council and the authorities in Minsk depends above all on the Belarusian leaders' willingness to anchor their country in the system of shared values of the Council of Europe member states. This is the message the Committee of Ministers and the Lithuanian Chairmanship is giving to the Belarus authorities. Co-operation between the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly will continue to be important for the forging of closer relations between the Council of Europe and Belarus.Mr. President,During the Lithuanian Chairmanship, I have already carried out official visits to "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", Moldova, Ukraine and Russia. You should have received my reports on my visits to Skopje, Chisinau and Kiev. The visit to Moscow was held just last week. The very aim of these visits was to highlight the Council of Europe's support for the national authorities' efforts to consolidate democracy. We attach great importance to the implementation of Council of Europe standards and adequate putting into practice of new democratic legislation and urged competent authorities of these countries to intensify co-operation with the Council of Europe. Concerning the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, there is some urgency now for making progress towards a satisfactory implementation of the constitutional and legislative arrangements agreed to with the aim of promoting good relations and co-operation between ethnic communities. Our Organisation is involved in concrete assistance in several spheres, such as in particular local self-government.Following my official visit to Moldova on 5-6 December 2001, I would like to emphasise that Moldova needs particular attention from our Organisation. There is necessity of further intensive and wide-ranging support and assistance to Moldova from the Council of Europe. In particular, the settlement of the Transnistrian problem takes on added urgency, in the context of the international fight against terrorism, and potentially related criminal activities, such as money laundering. I hope that the information contained in the reports will be also useful for the Assembly's monitoring procedure. Moreover, we regard this as an expression of the effective co-operation between the Committee of Ministers and your Assembly.Concerning our co-operation with Ukraine, during my visit to Kyiv, I noted a progress and willingness of the Ukrainian authorities to work hard in order to fulfil the membership commitments. A few days ago, the Committee of Ministers adopted a reply to the Assembly's recommendation 1538(2001) on honouring of obligations and commitments of Ukraine.I carried out a visit to the Russian Federation on 14-16 of January 2002. I would like to pay tribute to the Russian Federation for the excellent organisation of the visit.Membership in the Council of Europe provides Russia with an opportunity to actively contribute to the building of a Greater Europe without dividing lines. The Council of Europe membership provides important support for those in Russia who are promoting reform steps towards good governance, institution building and changes in administrative practices and perceptions. Russia through Council of Europe assistance and co-operation programmes has achieved tangible results in implementation of democratic reforms. Council of Europe co-operation and assistance programs should be continued both on the federal level and in the regions, helping to adapt both laws and perceptions of people in such fields as human rights awareness, reform of the judiciary, freedom of expression and mass media and federalism. The issue of progress made in the obligations and commitments accepted by Russia upon accession to the Council of Europe and concerning Baltic states has also been raised. I have encouraged the Russian authorities to ratify Protocol No.6 concerning death penalty and to authorise the publication of the report on the Committee on the Prevention of Torture visit to the country. Only political consultations and negotiations, including representatives of all socio-political forces, except those who committed serious crimes, could bring about durable conditions for ensuring protection of human rights, respect for the rule of law and success of economic reconstruction in Chechnya. The Joint Working Group on Chechnya (PACE/State Duma) proves to be a good instrument to facilitate and provide support for the initiative towards a solution. Although the humanitarian situation of refugees and displaced persons in the Chechen Republic and Ingushetia is still very difficult, I have been assured by the Russian authorities and Mr. Ivinski, Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly's Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography that there have been some tangible improvements. Lithuania has decided to contribute to the betterment of the humanitarian situation of the Chechen people and make a voluntary contribution through UNICEF.Council of Europe staff offering expert assistance to the Office of the President of the Russian Federation's Special Representative for Human Rights in Chechnya, Mr Kalamanov has proved to be instrumental in his work for the protection of human rights of the people of Chechnya and the Council of Europe presence in the North Caucasus in its present form or extended contribution to other spheres of work within the competence of the Council of Europe would be useful.The Committee of Ministers has continued to follow closely the honouring of commitments entered into by Armenia and Azerbaijan on their accession to the Council of Europe. As a chair, I intend to visit Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in March this year.Priority has been also given to the question of the European Court of Human Rights. Following the Report of the Evaluation group to examine possible means of guaranteeing the Court's effectiveness Committee of Ministers adopted a Declaration on "the Protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe - guaranteeing the long-term effectiveness of the European Court of Human Rights". The Committee of Ministers takes this opportunity to thank the Assembly for its contribution to the preparation of the report.Success and awareness of the Council of Europe activities also depend on co- ordination with other international organisations. The Lithuanian chairmanship has supported co-operation with the European Union, OSCE and the United Nations. Two high level meetings have been held in Vaduz on 30 October ("3 + 3" meeting with the OSCE) and in Brussels on 20 November ("quadripartite" meeting with the European Commission and the European Union Council). I had an opportunity, alongside the Secretary General to meet representatives of EU and OSCE in Brussels and Bucharest. Lithuanian Chairmanship was actively involved in preparing the UN Resolution on co-operation with the Council of Europe.The creation of a stable and democratic Europe depends on co-operation between states, and trans-frontier cooperation between local and regional authorities, as well as between the Council of Europe and regional organizations of its member states. Lithuania would like to seek to develop the synergies between those levels of co-operation. Therefore, Lithuania as a central theme for the 110-th Committee of Ministers session in Vilnius proposed: "Regional Co-operation: Its Impact on Stability and Democratic Reforms in Europe". The aims of the session would be to coordinate the activities of the Council of Europe and of sub-regional organizations, increasing the effectiveness of regional democratisation and good neighborly relation and to promote the positive experience of the Baltic Sea States' regional cooperation and good neighborly relations. I would like to propose that a forthcoming part-session of the Parliamentary Assembly would include an item on co-operation with regional parliamentary assemblies. Prospects for the future of the Council of Europe cannot be separated from the question of whether the means available to the Organisation are in keeping with its important responsibilities. In this connection, the adoption of the 2002 budget is a step forward. 169 million Euros will enable the objectives set for the Organisation for the coming year to be attained. Also, the ad hoc Working Group created to examine the revision of the method of calculating the scales of member states' contributions has continued its work and it will conduct appropriate consultations with the Assembly in due course.I thank you for your attention and I shall now be happy to answer your questions.