Germanas attends Council of Europe’s meeting, stresses that non-compliance with international law leads to conflict
On 18-19 May, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Neris Germanas participated in the Council of Europe’s foreign ministers’ meeting, which focused on addressing new threats, including the refugee crisis, conflicts, populism, and extremism.
In his address to heads of diplomacy of member states of the Council of Europe, Lithuania’s Foreign Vice-Minister stressed that the main threat to democratic security in Europe was non-compliance with international law and violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of other states. Germanas noted that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe had taken decisions on situations of human rights in Crimea and in Georgia that showed a principled stand position of member states of the Council of Europe towards Russian aggression and annexation of other states.
Lithuania’s Foreign Vice-Minister also drew attention to an increase in the number of attacks on journalists, human rights activists and minorities in some member states of the Council of Europe. In this context, it was pointed out that the Council of Europe must respond with integrity to the ongoing massive persecution of LGBTI people in Chechnya. Moreover, Lithuania’s Foreign Vice-Minister drew attention to the threat posed by propaganda and disinformation to democracy and called on the Council of Europe to get more involved in addressing these problems.
The Council of Europe’s foreign ministers’ meeting adopted the Guidelines on the protection of victims of terrorist acts, the Action Plan on the protection of migrant and refugee children, and the new Convention on Offences relating to Cultural Property was submitted for signing.
The Council of Europe is a regional intergovernmental organization that comprises 47 countries of Europe. From November to May 2017, Cyprus chaired the Committee of Ministers. The Czech Republic will take over the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers for the next six months. Lithuania chaired the Committee of Ministers from November 2001 to May 2002. In 2018, Lithuania will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its accession to the Council of Europe.
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