Athens, 16 April 2021

Spring Session of Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe to begin Monday

The Spring Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will begin Monday 19 April, with the participation of the Greek Delegation. The Members of the delegation are: Dora Bakoyannis (Head of delegation), Evripidis Stylianidis, Foteini Pipili, Dimitris Kairidis, Nina Kasimati, Georgios Katrougalos, George Papandreou, Theodoros Roussopoulos, Anastasios Chatzivasileiou, Sokratis Famellos, Alexandros Triantafyllidis, Liana Kanelli, Kyriakos Velopoulos and Foteini Bakadima. The Session will take place in a hybrid format and conclude on 22 April 2021.

Requests for urgent debates have been made on: the arrest and detention of Alexei Navalny and the functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey.

The issue of the detention of Alexei Navalny had also been raised during the first part Session, in January, under “current topics”, but no decision was made.

The Assembly will discuss current developments in Belarus in light of the most recent presidential elections.

Regarding the request on the functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey, the Bureau during its meeting on the 18th of March voted in favour of holding the debate in the plenary, and appointed the German MP, Frank Schwabe, as rapporteur.

During the Plenary, participants will hear from the Secretary General, Marija Pejčinović Buric, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, the European Affairs Minister, Michael Roth, representing the German Presidency of the Committee of Ministers, the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, the OECD Secretary General, Ángel Gurría, who will present the OECD’s work on taxing the digital economy, on the occasion of the relevant report by Mr. Katrougalos and finally, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, will present her 2020 annual report of activities.

Other issues on the agenda are:

- preserving national minorities in Europe
- post-monitoring dialogue with Montenegro
- the Assembly’s vision of the Council of Europe’s strategic priorities
- the report by Greek MP Georgios Katrougalos on fighting fiscal injustice
- discrimination against persons dealing with chronic illnesses
- discussion on the European policy on diasporas

 

Back