Athens, 18 May 2022

President of Hellenic Parliament meets with President of Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe

“The time has come when border violations, human rights violations will no longer be tolerated”. This was pointed out by the President of the Hellenic Parliament Constantine Tassoulas, who welcomed to the Parliament the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Tiny Kox, who is in our country on an official visit, following and invitation by Mr Tassoulas.

As the President of the Parliament emphatically underlined, “the meetings of the MPs at the Council of Europe are taking place under the depressing shadow cast by the inhumane and illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia”.

Mr Tassoulas stressed that “the freedoms of the citizens, the borders of the countries need protection”, while also saying that he is convinced that “the PACE is a leading international mechanism, which can strengthen human rights and contribute to their protection from revisionist and authoritarian leaders”.

For his part, PACE President Kox referred to the necessity of effective multilateralism, if we wish to prevent wars on European territory. As he pointed out, we are currently witnessing a full-fledged war by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, a member of the CoE. He continued saying that a bloody war is taking place with thousands of victims, while many citizens have left and are seeking shelter in other parts of Europe. He concluded by saying that this is why he thinks that multilateralism must not be an abstract notion, but a necessity, if we wish to provide the answers to all of these problems.  

The President of the Parliament presented the PACE President with the Hellenic Parliament golden medal for his contribution to democracy, the defence of human rights and freedom. The medal depicts Goddess Athens and is accompanied by an honorary scroll.

Present during the meeting were also the PACE Secretary General Despina Chatzivassiliou-Tsovilis, the member of the Greek delegation to PACE Dimitrios Kairidis, the Secretary General of the Parliament George Mylonakis, the Special Secretary of the Parliament Vasilios Bagiokos and the Parliament’s Diplomatic Advisor Ambassador Constantine Economidis.

Mr Kox will also hold meetings, in the following order, with the Deputy Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos, the Justice Minister Konstantinos Tsiaras, the New Democracy Vice-President Kostis Hatzidakis and the leaders and representatives of the political parties in parliament.

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  ΔΗΛΩΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΠΡΟΕΔΡΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΒΟΥΛΗΣ

  ΔΗΛΩΣΗ ΠΡΟΕΔΡΟΥ Κ.Σ. ΤΟΥ ΣΥΜΒΟΥΛΙΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΕΥΡΩΠΗΣ