Leni Fischer was an educator and politician. Between 1996 and 1999 she was President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the first woman to hold this post.
Her key priority during her presidency was to strengthen the political importance of the Assembly and its role as the political engine of the Council of Europe.
Other priorities included freedom of religion, promoting women’s rights, protecting national minorities and bringing about the integration of the new democracies in Europe. Strengthening the Assembly’s external relations was also important to her.
She co-presided the Second Council of Europe Summit, which was held in Strasbourg in 1997. At the Summit, she called for the reforms necessary to prepare the Organisation for the future and to intensify its contribution to cohesion, stability, and democratic security in Europe.
She represented the Assembly on the Soares Committee, where she argued that the Council of Europe’s priorities should be to ensure that all member States complied with the Organisation’s standards, and to assist new members in their legal, political, and social transformation. She also proposed that the Assembly should be consulted on all draft conventions, a request which was fully supported.
During her term, she also attended several conferences on women’s empowerment, a topic dear to her heart. The Assembly’s Committee on Equal Opportunities was created during her presidency.
She was known and appreciated for being a woman of strength and vision, with a good sense of humour.
The project “75 women in 75 years of Council of Europe history” is organised by the Delegation of the European Union to the Council of Europe with the Council of Europe and the Permanent Representations of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
