На 1 октомври 2019г.- вторник, в Операта в Страсбург беше отбелязана 70-тата годишнина от създаването на Съвета на Европа.
Честването беше планирано за юнската сесия на Асамблеята, но беше отложено поради острите спорове възникнали по време на сесията.
Церемонията е била открита от кмета на Страсбург Ролан Рийс.
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| Мария Пейчинович-Бурич |
Речи са произнесли бившият испански премиер Филипе Гонзалес, Президентът на ПАСЕ Лилиан Мори Паскье, г-жа Мария Пейчинович-Бурич - новоизбраният Генерален секретар на Съвета на Европа и Президентът на Европейския съд по правата на човека Линос-Александер Сичилианос.
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| Лилиан Мори Паскье |
От международната космическа станция видео-обръщение е направил космонавтът Лука Пармитано.
Излъчено е било и видео-поздравление от Генералния Секретар на ООН Антонио Гутереш.
Музикулна интерлюдия е изпълнил Страсбургския филхармоничен оркестър, а също победителят в песенното състезание Евровизия 2019г. Дънкан Лоренс е изпълнил свой музикален поздрав.
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| Страсбургският филхармоничен оркестър |
Най-голям интерес е предизвикало обръщението на Президента на Френската Република Еманюел Макрон, който е призовал събралите се гости да се обърнат с лице към предизвикателствата с оптимизъм и смелост опирайки се на дългогодишната традиция на европейската култура, демокрация и иновация.
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| Еманюел Макрон |
В края на церемонията са били връчени наградите на Младежкия конкурс за есе и фотография посветени на тази годишнина.
Фотографиите са от сайта на Съвета на Европа
На другия ден - 3 октомри 2019г. в пленарната зала на ПАСЕ, на кратка церемония, всеки от лидерите на партийните групи произнесе реч по повод 70-тата годишнина на Съвета на Европа.
Celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Council of Europe
3 October 2019 at 11: 45
Ms Liliane MAURY PASQUIER
Switzerland, SOC, President of the
Assembly
As announced, we now move to the 70th anniversary ceremony of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
I ask the group leaders to join the seats allocated to them in the
hemicycle.
Ladies and gentlemen,
On Tuesday we held the official ceremony to celebrate the 70th
anniversary of the Council of Europe. It was a particularly moving
moment for all of us: we can and must be proud of what we have
accomplished during these 70 years. And we want to celebrate this
anniversary also in this place. On the basis of this knowledge and
experience, we are determined to respond as effectively as possible
to the new challenges that Human Rights, democracy and the Rule of
Law face on our continent.
What strengthens us in this conviction? This is undoubtedly the
uniqueness of our Organization, in particular, its institutional
architecture.
We have, on the one hand, a Committee of Ministers, representing
the governments of our Member States and, on the other hand, a
Parliamentary Assembly which brings together democratically elected
parliamentarians and thus reflects diversity and pluralist
composition of our societies.
This structure is unheard of among multilateral organizations. The
other international parliamentary assemblies have a different role
and –above all– functions different from those of ours, which are
defined both by the Statute of the Council of Europe and by our
conventions, in particular by the European Convention on Human
Rights.
It is thanks to this unique institutional balance that governments
and parliaments have a shared responsibility to preserve Europe's
democratic principles and the fundamental rights and freedoms of all.
I wish today, during this ceremony, to emphasize the role that the
Assembly has played in the construction of Europe because, as a place
for debate, meetings and openness, our Assembly has greatly
influenced the genesis of the European project, allowing it to
develop and flourish.
For that, I propose to go back in time and to travel together in
the history of our Organization, through statements and speeches of
the men and women who carried the European project, knowing that many
of these visionary declarations were pronounced in this same
hemicycle.
[Audio recording: Victor Hugo]
"A day will come when you, France; you, Russia; you,
Italy; you, England; you, Germany; you, all the nations of the
continent, without losing your distinct qualities and your glorious
individuality, you will merge into a higher unity and you will
constitute the European fraternity ".
A century after Victor Hugo formulated these reflections, Sir
Winston Churchill will present in Zurich in 1946 his vision of the
reunification of the European continent: the United States of Europe.
He will then call for the formation of a Council of Europe.
[Video screening: Winston Launch Churchill]
"We need to build something like the United States of
Europe. (...) In view of this imperious task, France and Germany must
reconcile; Great Britain, the Commonwealth of British Nations, the
mighty America, and, I hope, Soviet Russia - because everything would
be solved - must be the friends and protectors of the new Europe and
defend its right to life. and prosperity. And it is in this spirit
that I say to you: forward, Europe! "
On May 5, 1949, the Treaty of London, signed by ten founding
countries, ratified the creation of the Council of Europe with, in
point of view, the achievement of a closer union between its members.
For Winston Churchill, one of the main reasons for founding the
Assembly was to associate a free and democratic Germany with Western
democracies. It will be done in 1950. Very soon, the other
democracies will join our Organization. In 1977, Spain will become
the 20th member, completing the Western table.
[Video screening: King of Spain]
"In saluting this House, I can not forget the decisive
role it played in the accession of Spain, a role which, in a certain
way, led it to deviate from its uses to value its faith and hope in
the process of transition to democracy in Spain ".
But the Iron Curtain will continue to separate long "millions
of homes whose hearts are with us", as evoked by Winston
Churchill right here in 1949. Forty years later, the first milestones
will finally be planted to allow the Council to Europe –with the
help of our Assembly– to achieve what was its vocation: to bring
together all the parliamentary democracies of the Old Continent.
[Video screening: Catherine LALUMIÈRE]
"We will try, together, to live up to the democratic
ideal of those who gave birth to the Council of Europe... We will
also try to reach out, to help all those who ask us to assert with
force the superiority of right and freedom and call us to open the
door for them, I was going to say, to open their arms."
[Video screening: Mikhail Gorbachev]
"During meetings recently held with European leaders, the
architecture of the common house and the techniques of its
construction and even its furnishings were discussed. The talks on
this subject in Moscow and Paris, with President François
Mitterrand, have been fruitful. (...). Nevertheless, even today, I do
not pretend to have in my pocket a project ready for this house. "
The Council of Europe and its Assembly take note of the fact that
European reunification is no longer a utopia. Events are rushing
towards the end of 1989, and Europeans from Eastern and Western
Europe are finally seeing the "unity of the continent",
to which everyone has aspired. The founding dream can finally be
realized.
[Video screening: François Mitterrand]
"On the 40th anniversary of your Organization, you had
just welcomed a 23rd state, Finland. Democratic Europe was reborn.
She seemed then complete, and yet our joy could not be complete, for
there was the other Europe. I remember having expressed our refusal
to resign ourselves to this fracture. "
[Video screening: Helmut Kohl]
"What is important to me is that in the twenty-first
century we can live together in peace and freedom and leave the
barbarity behind us forever. (...) To maintain peace, we must make
the path to a united Europe irreversible. (...) Our European house
must be able to withstand bad weather and be covered by a solid roof;
it will have to allow all the peoples of Europe to lodge at their
convenience. "
[Video screening: Václav Havel]
"Without dreaming of a better Europe, we will never build
a better Europe. I do not see the twelve stars of your emblem as the
expression of the proud conviction that the Council of Europe will
build heaven on earth. There will never be paradise on earth. For me,
these twelve stars mean that we could live better on earth if we
dared, from time to time, to look up at the stars. "
My dear colleagues,
Dear friends, dear friends,
We have just re-lived some of the highlights of our Organization's
history.
During the past 70 years, our Assembly has always been the driving
force behind the process of European unification, the construction of
our common home.
Today, its role is all the more important in this process, as a
forum for dialogue and political debate at the level of Greater
Europe, as emphasized yesterday the President of the French Republic,
Mr. Emmanuel MACRON. I would like, in this context, to thank you all
for your commitment to our Assembly: Europe needs your energy, your
enthusiasm and your competence to meet the challenges that human
rights are facing in Europe. I would also like to express our
gratitude to the staff of the Council of Europe and more particularly
to the staff of the secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly. Their
expertise, commitment and loyalty to the service of our Organization
and our values are absolutely essential to the continuation of our
activities.
Dear friends, dear friends,
We are proud today of our common home, yet we all know that,
despite solid foundations, it is today weakened by the erosion of
values that are our foundations. A wave of division is blowing again
on the continent, weakening mutual trust between the member states.
Solidarity and cooperation give way to withdrawal and fear of others.
The specter of nationalist ideology comes back to haunt and
contaminate the minds. Pluralism and dialogue in society increasingly
come up against authoritarian tendencies.
How to resist these trends?
Let us always remember our common history and the exploits we have
accomplished: despite the hardships that have marked the years, we
have continually overcome them.
Seventy years ago, after two devastating world wars, the peoples
of Europe rose to the challenge of rebuilding peace.
Faced with a deep crisis of values, these women and men, with
their courage and determination, found the moral compass to guide
their action: Human rights, freedom and democracy, justice and Rule
of law.
Today, we must live up to their courage and vision.
Today, as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Council of
Europe, we have the opportunity to give a new political impetus to
our Organization in order to continue to defend together the
fundamental rights and freedoms of all Europeans who live in our
common home. I am convinced that our Assembly has all the assets to
meet this challenge and I count on each and every one of you to work
in this direction.
Thank you.
And I now give the floor to Mrs Marija PEJČINOVIĆ-BURIĆ,
Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
Marija Pejčinović Burić
Council of Europe Secretary General
Merci, Madame la Président,
Dear friends,
After 70 years, the Council of Europe is our continent’s leading
human rights organisation. We have a common legal space in which
common standards are agreed and applied. And this greater unity, this
unprecedented degree of co-operation, has created a place for lasting
peace.
The European Convention and the European Social Charter are the
reference point from which the rights of Europeans emanate. These are
the basis of our wide range of legal instruments that defend and
promote human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
On our 70th anniversary, we are right to reflect on the way in
which all of this has transformed the lives of people who live
throughout our 47 member states. But we should also see our
achievements as a signpost for the work that we must do.
May’s Ministerial Session in Helsinki made clear its
determination to move forward, finding new solutions to emerging
issues on the basis of our shared values.
Artificial intelligence, human trafficking for the purpose of
labour exploitation, and the more effective application of social
rights: all of these require new thinking and work that has already
begun.
Dear friends,
Our organisation owes its success to the dedication of those who
work within it and who participate in the work of its organs and
institutions.
This goes for the extraordinary, talented and professional staff
at its service. This also applies to parliamentarians who have also
made this deliberate choice to become part of the Council of Europe's
mission.
The contribution of this parliamentary assembly will remain
decisive for our future achievements. I'm not talking just about the
debates you hold, the reports you write, and the checks and balances
you conduct, no matter how important they are. I also want to talk
about your ability to support and carry out the development of new
instruments, as these are key to our success.
This organisation gave rise to the Istanbul Convention on
Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic
Violence, the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and a few years earlier
the initial proposal for a collective complaints procedure for the
European Social Charter.
These texts and many others testify to your commitment and your
ability.
Dear friends, when the Council of Europe was set up, one of the
questions was whether this organisation should be intergovernmental
or interparliamentary. The answer was to agree that it should be both
at the same time, as indicated in our statute. This decision was the
right one.
The cause of human rights, democracy and the rule of law is a
cause that should be a source of unity and not of divisions. By
building bridges between governments and parliamentarians, we are
getting much better results.
Our unity has been our strength over the past 70 years.
This must remain the case as we prepare for the challenges ahead.
Thank you very much
Mr Aleksander POCIEJ
Poland, EPP/CD, Chairperson of the group
Madam President,
Madam Secretary General,
When you throw a stone into the mountain, you can not predict
whether it will sink noiselessly into the snow or if, by disturbing
the silence and the fragile immobility of the sleeping forces, it
will be the beginning of an avalanche.
The London Act of May 1949, using the words of Jacques Chirac, was
a beginning of a new history in Europe.
Seventy years ago, in a destroyed-by-a-terrible war Europe, the
great minds built a new order based on peace, democracy, and liberal
economies. From today's perspective, the project implemented by 47
countries in Europe can be assessed as an avalanche of success. High
standards of human rights pushed by the Council from the beginning
have become a model for subsequent countries joining it.
In the 90s, for all countries that were suffering under the
occupation of the Soviet Union, after years of trampling morals,
human rights, and democracy, the system of values — based on ideas
of enlightenment and the Christian values — was a compass of
conduct, a recipe for democracy and the rule of law. At the time of
its inception, the death penalty applied in most Council of Europe
member states.
In this regard, the impossible has been accomplished. Forcing the
abolition of the death penalty through nearly the entire Europe is of
historical merit and a reason to be proud of the Council. The
European Court of Human Rights directly affects the legislation of
individual European countries, leading to the harmonisation of
values. Monitoring democracy in the member countries is a great merit
of our parliamentarians.
The merit of the Venice Commission cannot be overestimated, which
I myself as a Polish citizen and parliamentarian, unfortunately, can
testify to. The Jubilee is always a reason to celebrate, but this
70th anniversary was associated with a serious financial crisis that
posed a threat to the functioning of the Council and its
institutions. The absence of the majority of the Eastern delegation
here today is proof of a deep fracture in the Assembly.
We must strongly work to change it. We expect the new Secretary
General not only to protect human rights and democratic order but
also to rebuild the unity of the assembly and create the new Council
of Europe structure that will not allow this venerable institution to
be under financial threat anymore.
Thank you very much.
Mr Frank SCHWABE
Germany, Chairperson of the SOC
Madam President,
Secretary-General,
Dear judges,
Human rights defenders,
Staff of this great organisation,
Dear Colleagues.
"It happened, therefore it can happen again." This is a
quote from Primo Levi, an Italian writer and survivor of the
Holocaust. "It happened, therefore it can happen again."
That was the motivation for a project of school pupils in my
constituency, Waltrop. The title of the project was "Alertness
Project." When I sat there and was introduced to the project, I
realised once again why this organisation really exists; why it was
founded 70 years ago.
It was the result of two world wars and the German Holocaust. It
was to say never again: we never want to experience such a thing
again, we want to place human dignity at the centre of European
politics. There were many phases in the 70 years of this
organisation. Today is the day of German unity, for example, one of
the phases. We have this morning seen some of the earlier phases that
made up these 70 years. But we are probably entering a new, second
phase, for this organisation, because in the last 60 or 70 years
almost all countries have become members of the Council of Europe in
order to achieve more democracy, more human rights and further
develop their rule of law with the support of the Council of Europe.
But unfortunately we have seen a counter-tendency in recent years. A
growing number member states that are questioning the Council of
Europe, and that challenges us to provide new answers and to work all
the more persistently.
We are in the process of developing a new mechanism for how we
deal with states that do not abide by the rules and violate
fundamental values of democracy. We have to tackle the issue of
corruption. We have got started on this, but we are not finished yet.
We have to organise our finances, as has just been mentioned, so that
we also finance this organisation correctly. Zero Nominal Growth
when it comes to human rights can not exist. We have to make this
loud and clear to our national governments.
Dear colleagues,
It is an absolute privilege to be a member of this Parliamentary
Assembly. Through this and all other institutions of this
organisation, we have the mission to protect 820 million people, no
matter what their nationality. Everyone is deemed to equal in the
European Convention on Human Rights. And I encourage us to resist the
temptation to reflect what our national governments are discussing.
We have a series of forums for debate: there is the Committee of
Ministers, where national governments can discuss. The European
Convention on Human Rights does not distinguish between French and
Germans, between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, between Ukrainians and
Russians, but it is all the same before this European Convention on
Human Rights.
Finally, I want to thank the judges for their fantastic work. The
court is at the heart of this organisation and it is our holy grail.
We must do out utmost to defend this institution. I want to thank the
courageous human rights defenders who are often here in the corridors
and whom we do not value, I believe. They run many risks, including
to their own life, freedom and their own integrity for human rights.
We must do everything possible to protect these people.
I would like to thank, like the President, the staff and officials
of this great organisation; without them, we would all be nothing.
If you want to get a picture of this and have not yet done so, you
should just go up to the sixth floor. You'll see the posters, the
stickers and the pictures that highlight the commitment and empathy
of the staff and their great competence.
I would like to close with Primo Levi, with whom I also started. I
think his words depict an excellent picture of the future of our
organisation. Primo Levi also said: "The aims of life are the
best defence against death." What better metaphor could be used
on the Council of Europe's 70th Birthday.
Mr Hendrik DAEMS
Belgium, Chairperson of ALDE
You know, this morning I had a nice speech.
But, Madam President, Madam Secretary General, I began to think
about what the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is in
fact.
There are three keywords in there. There is a word that is
"assembly": it means to be together, all together, doing
something together. There is also the word "parliament".
There, it's easy in French, the word "parler"
means "to speak", "dialogue".
On the other hand, when I put it in English, it becomes quite
another thing: when we had parties that were in conflict, in English,
we said "let's parley", which means "solve a
conflict".
So parliament is not just about talking, it's not just about
dialogue, it's about solving the problems of the Assembly, all
together.
But there is more. I also started to think about Europe. What is
Europe? We could go back into history and say where does the word
come from? But basically it comes from Arabic, I don't know if you
know that. It's an Assyrian word, which basically means that's the
place where the sun goes down. We translated that into the West. Now
that depends on where you stand, because if you're standing in the
Philippines, Strasbourg is not exactly the West, I mean you have to
pass by many countries, which is why, I dare to say that, we should
leave a bit this concept of West. By the way, if you go from Porto to
Vladivostok how can you say about western or eastern, only talk about
the West, you cannot.
And so I was started to think about is there something like
European identity? What a difficult and dangerous word, "identity".
I think there is. I think there is something like European identity,
only, it is basically defined by unity in diversity. So it's not
normative, it's not that I have an identity that you have to follow.
No, it's unity in diversity. And when I come back to what Churchill
said, united states of Europe, I got to thinking that states have
borders, but values do not have borders. And so basically when we're
talking about Europe, we're not talking about countries, we are
talking about values, that is what we are talking about. We talk
about dignity. Basically, we're talking about equality. We're talking
about liberty, dignité, égalité, liberté. That
is what we are talking about and that is something that we all, in
this house, should be defending, should value, should basically
uphold, all of us.
This is why Madam President, Madam Secretary General, all
colleagues, I've got this thinking that basically the Council of
Europe, it's not some kind of the united states of Europe. It is not.
That might be the European Union, something else, my feeling, it's
not the Council of Europe, my feeling is that this house, this temple
of democracy, basically is the Council of the Europeans; because
again, states have borders, values do not. And so when someone would
ask me outside or inside, who are you? What are you? I would tend to
answer, well, "I'm a European". And my wish for the future
will be when any one of you would get the same question, I would
really hope that you would answer, "me too, I'm a European, I
also am a European".
Thank you.
Mr Ian LIDDELL-GRAINGER
United Kingdom, Chairperson of the EC
Well colleagues, thank you very much indeed.
It was quite surreal, just when you were speaking, Madame
President, to see Sir Winston CHURCHILL, standing then, and you
paraphrased what he said, because he did speak rather long-windedly.
And, basically what he said is, after a generation of terrible wars,
we had a chance to set ourselves above that, and to bring Europe,
which had been at war for a thousand years, together.
And that's what this place is about. This is — you've already
heard from three of my co-presidents, and you will hear from Tiny
after me — we should be proud of what the people before us did,
from all countries of Europe, because they had an aspiration, because
most of them had suffered terribly in two world wars. They understood
what was necessary to bring Europe together. And that challenge is
now the challenge that we face as a generation that has never known a
war — not of that scale.
Yet, here we are in 2019, where we have countries boycotting the
Council of Europe. We have countries who are not paying the money
they should to the Council of Europe. We have uncertainty — as Rick
put very eloquently — across Europe, as to what the role of Europe
and where we are going in Europe.
I stand before you as a Brit; we have one or two local
difficulties over Europe. And that is our problem. We were here to
unite, to democracy, human rights, culture. So much of what we
believe in. I'm fairly new to the Council of Europe — and my
colleague Tiny here has been here twice as long as I have — but
understands the ramifications of where we are heading in the future.
No organisation, no matter how good or bad it is, has a right to
exist anymore. We were superseded in many ways by the UN and other
organisations. We do have brilliant abilities here. The European
Development Bank — a lot of you may be sitting in here going, "What
on earth is he talking about?" — it has €25 billion on the
funds. It does an enormous amount of good work. A huge amount of good
work. And it is a, probably, a shining example of European
integration as to what we can do with money that we get from our
government, channelled in a different way.
But, yet again, — I will say to you this — if you look at the
way we operate, as an organisation, we haven't greatly changed since
the 1950s. Our predecessors, in that time, would recognise a lot of
the stuff we do. And the questions I would ask to you, Madame
Secretary General and you Madame President, is this: we need to
modernise, we need to look to the future, we need to compete — not
physically, obviously — with other organisations.
I've just come back from Uganda where I was at the Commonwealth
Parliamentary Conference with 58 countries. We spent our time talking
about how can we better, where do we put our money? Britain alone
gives nearly £13 billion in overseas aid. Many other countries do
the same, and they're phenomenally generous.
Now, why are we not tapping into that? And I would ask you — and
I will leave you this — do we do too many reports that nobody
reads? Are our reports intellectually rigorous enough to stand what
is now the international norm? Are we too much of our time looking at
our tummy buttons and talking to ourselves?
The 70th anniversary, and Monsieur MACRON stood in this
place a couple of days ago, was not reported across Europe, as far as
I can make out. In France, they're very pleased — so I was told —
that there was a 70th anniversary. Unfortunately, it was China, not
us. So, therefore, our challenge is the challenge of taking us
forward to be — dare I say it — relevant in the 21st century and
that is up to all of us.
Our failure is countries boycotting. Our failure is money not
being paid. Our failure is not being listened to by the countries of
Europe and that is the challenge we will face over the next
generation. It won't be us that has to finally, probably, make that
decision. But it should be us that leads the charge for the future of
the Council of Europe, because if we don't, in 70 years' time I worry
where we will be.
But I have faith, I have conviction and I have an ability to think
that yes, together, as parliamentarians, as people who make this
place what it is, that we together will lead us to a place we've got
to get to. And I say that because a lot of citizens of Europe will
depend on us. We fail, we fail them. We succeed, they will have our
protection and they should always have our protection. We are
parliamentarians, we understand elections, we understand people and
we should use that as the basis of our future.
Thank you very much indeed.
Mr Tiny KOX
Netherlands, Chairperson of the UEL
Madam President, Madam Secretary General, ambassadors, dear
colleagues.
It is inspiring for me to see how we are here together in this
hemicycle, where we are allowed because our governments and our
parliaments signed and ratified, at a certain moment, the Statute of
the Council of Europe and European Convention of Human Rights.
To be here is not for free. It comes with obligations. According
to the Statute, the goal of the Council of Europe is to bring greater
unity between its members for the purpose of safeguarding and
realising our ideas and principles. Principles of the rule of law,
and of the enjoyment by all persons of human rights and fundamental
freedoms, as well as to ensure economic and social progress in all
our member states. That is written in our Statute. Membership obliges
all member states to contribute to this greater European Union, says
the Statute.
The fundamental rights and freedoms of which the Statute speaks
have been formulated in the European Convention of Human Rights, and
are under the oversight of our European Court of Human Rights, which
we have granted the right to make binding verdicts in cases brought
before the Court. By citizens from Vladivostok to Reykjavik, from the
North Pole to the Mediterranean, this Council of Europe is a unique
construction.
Madame President, Madame Secretary General, we politicians, we are
able to understand the uniqueness of this Council of Europe and the
challenging promise it is to all our citizens to have a better and a
safer life. But we as politicians are also aware that it's far more
easy to promise than to deliver. In spite of the commitment to
greater unity in Europe, to the benefit of our citizens, we often see
greater divide, to the detriment of our citizens. In spite of the
binding obligations for all member states to respect the fundamental
freedoms and rights of our citizens, we far too often see these
rights violated and these freedoms taken away from our citizens by
all member states. We have to be fair. We politicians too often fail
to deliver on the promises that we made to our citizens. We should
feel responsible for that.
Madame President, Madame Secretary General, if we want seven years
after the birth of this Council of Europe to still work on greater
unity between our 47 member states, we have to accelerate our efforts
to become more effective and more inspiring, as the colleagues
already said.
We have a great acquis of over 200 conventions. Many
instruments and organs, and a possibility to develop new conventions,
to make existing conventions better, and make new agreements and
instruments. We are not empty-handed in the Council of Europe. By
adopting last April a resolution and a recommendation on the main
challenges for the future, we gave ourselves as an Assembly, a clear
but demanding roadmap for the coming years. That now, while
celebrating our 70th anniversary, obliges us once again to act in
line with these decisions we took and work even harder for the
greater European unity in the future in order to promote and protect
the rule of the law and the fundamental rights and freedoms of our
citizens.
Our Council of Europe has a great past. I had the chance during
the past six years to study it. And I have seen, in how many member
states, the Council of Europe, its efforts, its conventions, it has
really helped to make life better for our citizens. It is not often
in the newspapers. But, if the only goal is to be in the newspapers,
we should become something other than politicians. The goal is to do
what we promised to our citizens. And the Council of Europe has
delivered, has delivered quite a lot.
I think Madame President, Madame Secretary General, we can be
proud that we have a great past. It is now time to take care and to
work all together to have a great future. We can if we want. I am
honoured to be a member of this Assembly. I am honoured to have the
possibility, so many times in the year, to talk with all of you,
whatever different opinions we have. And I hope that in the future,
Madame President, Madam Secretary General, we will move away from
considering this hemicycle as a battleground for geopolitical
struggle. And to make it evermore an innovative factory where good
ideas to the benefit of our 830 million citizens can develop into
working instruments. Once again, we can if we want.
Thank you very much.
Ms Liliane MAURY PASQUIER
Switzerland, SOC, President of the Assembly
My dear colleagues,
Dear friends,
We are coming to the end of our ceremony.
I would like to thank the Presidents of the political groups, and
all of you who have joined us in this Chamber, for your presence and
your participation, which testify to your commitment to the
Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Europe.
This commitment is particularly important after the crisis that our Assembly and the Council of Europe have gone through. I said it at the opening of our part-session: I am deeply convinced that, if we have succeeded in overcoming these difficulties, it is thanks to our desire for dialogue, to our deep commitment to our political mission. That is, to guarantee and protect the rights and freedoms of all our peoples, our fellow citizens. This political mission unites us and gives meaning to our common work. Dialogue allows us to better understand each other, to mitigate our differences, and to find a common agenda to move forward together.
As President of this Assembly, I will spare no effort to continue to facilitate this process, and I count on the support of each and every one of you.
I thank you for your attention, and I now suggest that we rise and listen to the European anthem, in order to conclude this ceremony.
This commitment is particularly important after the crisis that our Assembly and the Council of Europe have gone through. I said it at the opening of our part-session: I am deeply convinced that, if we have succeeded in overcoming these difficulties, it is thanks to our desire for dialogue, to our deep commitment to our political mission. That is, to guarantee and protect the rights and freedoms of all our peoples, our fellow citizens. This political mission unites us and gives meaning to our common work. Dialogue allows us to better understand each other, to mitigate our differences, and to find a common agenda to move forward together.
As President of this Assembly, I will spare no effort to continue to facilitate this process, and I count on the support of each and every one of you.
I thank you for your attention, and I now suggest that we rise and listen to the European anthem, in order to conclude this ceremony.
