Newsroom
Secretary General: accept the findings of the anti-Corruption Commission
Answering a series of questions from members of the Parliamentary Assembly about a meeting with a former Ambassador for Azerbaijan, Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland urged the Assembly to stop making political theatre out of the findings of its own anti-corruption Commission, which published...
"Member States must fully implement Council of Europe standards"
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, addressing PACE today in the framework of Croatia’s Chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, underlined that all member States must unequivocally implement the Council’s shared standards. He expressed his support for ongoing measures...
Joint statement on the occasion of the “United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture”
"70 years on, torture is still widespread: more action needed to achieve a torture-free world for all"
Croatian Chairmanship plans put focus on fighting corruption
Croatian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Marija Pejčinović Burić spelled out her country’s priorities for its six-month spell chairing the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers in a speech to the Parliamentary Assembly today. Presenting the work of the...
Liliane Maury Pasquier elected PACE President
Liliane Maury Pasquier (Switzerland, SOC) has been elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Succeeding Michele Nicoletti (Italy, SOC) – who resigned because he was not re-elected in Italy – she becomes PACE’s 32nd President and the second Swiss...
Is Russia making any progress in criminalising bribery and ensuring transparency of party funding? – GRECO’s assessment
The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has published a new assessment of the implementation by Russia of its recommendations on incriminations and transparency of party funding. Twelve recommendations (as compared to 11 during the previous assessment) out of 21 have...
Summer Session: Croatian and Slovak Prime Ministers to address PACE
PACE is scheduled to elect its new President at its summer session in Strasbourg (25-29 June 2018). VIPs to address members include the Croatian and Slovak Prime Ministers as well as the Luxembourg Foreign Minister. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of...
Hungary: “Stop Soros” provision on illegal migration should be repealed as it seriously impairs legitimate NGO work, say Venice Commission legal experts
An opinion adopted today by the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission criticises a key provision on illegal migration of the so-called “Stop Soros” legislation that the Hungarian Parliament adopted this week. The new provision – Article 353A of the Criminal Code – introduces the offence of...
Poland: Council of Europe anti-corruption group criticises weakening independence of courts and judges
Following–up on preliminary findings of March 2018, the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has now re-assessed legislation passed in respect of Poland’s judiciary in 2017-18, including the new amendments to the laws on the National Council of the Judiciary, the Supreme...
Committee for the Prevention of Torture factsheet on transport of detainees
CPT delegations have periodically inspected vehicles intended for the transport of detainees, mainly by road and rail. They often found that conditions were substandard or that basic safety requirements were not being met. The Committee also detected practices which merited criticism (e.g....
Unrelenting rise in xenophobic populism, resentment, hate speech in Europe in 2017
Xenophobic populism and hate speech have continued to be on the rise in 2017, with high levels of migration and challenges of integration, religious extremism, terrorist attacks and the austerity-driven socio-economic climate observed all over Europe, says the annual report of the European...
Data protection: conference on the modernisation of “Convention 108”
The Council of Europe is organising a conference in Strasbourg on 21 June to discuss the implications for data protection globally of the recently adopted modernisation of the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, known as “Convention...
Anti-torture Committee publishes critical report on police ill-treatment in Serbia and the outdated treatment of remand prisoners
The Serbian authorities must recognise that ill-treatment by the police is an accepted practice, and not the work of a few rogue officers; they must effectively investigate the allegations of ill-treatment and punish the crime, said the Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee (CPT) in the...
The UK ratifies the Lanzarote Convention to protect children against sexual violence
The United Kingdom has formally ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, known as the Lanzarote Convention. The convention is a legally-binding treaty which obliges countries to take a wide range of steps to help prevent...
Human trafficking: Spain achieved progress, but further action needed against trafficking for labour exploitation
Spain has made progress in developing the legislative, institutional and policy framework against trafficking in human beings. However, improvements are needed in a number of areas, in particular more efforts are required to tackle trafficking for labour exploitation, says the Council of Europe’s...
Refugee today – citizen tomorrow?
There is a voice which is rarely heard in the deeply divisive debate about refugee policies – the voice of cities. Listening to cities can not only make the debate more constructive, it can also help shape policies which reconcile solidarity and societal cohesion. Most asylum-seekers and refugees...
Cabo Verde joins the data protection and cybercrime conventions
Cabo Verde today acceded to the Council of Europe´s Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, known as “Convention 108”, to its Additional Protocol on transborder data flows and supervisory authorities, and to the Convention on Cybercrime....
Secretary General Jagland to meet Russian President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov in Moscow
Secretary General Jagland will meet President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday to discuss current relations between Russia and the Council of Europe. Mr Jagland will also meet Russian Ombudsperson Moskalkova. Contact: daniel.holtgen@coe.int
“Stop Soros” legislation in Hungary: Venice Commission president asks Hungarian parliament not to proceed with vote before its opinion on the matter is adopted
Venice Commission President Gianni Buquicchio met with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Monday 18 June in Strasbourg at the Council of Europe to discuss the upcoming opinion on new “Stop Soros” legislative provisions. President Buquicchio called on the Hungarian Parliament not to...
Croatian Chairmanship underlines the importance of dialogue with national minority representatives and the competent institutions in advancing national minority rights
Chair of the Committee of Ministers, Marija Pejčinović Burić, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia and Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe opened a conference entitled “Minorities and Minority Languages in a Changing Europe” in...
