Migration, headline of PACE Summer Session in Strasbourg

Migration crisis makes headline of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) summer session, that started yesterday in Strasbourg with the election of a new PACE President, and lasts until Friday, 29 June.

Intensified extremism, violence and hatred, in the context of an increase of the migratory flows and of a deteriorating security, are strong arguments for becoming more united.

This was essentially the message of the new President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Ms Liliane Maury Pasquier (Swiss MP aged 61).

Most important issues on the agenda are the refugees and the situation of Ukrainian prisoners held by Russia, especially in the occupied Crimea. These topics, especially the latter, are the most sensitive, as the Russian delegation is again absent, following Council’s decision of last year to suspend the right to vote of the Russian MPs.

Since then, Russia has boycotted the Council's work and refuses to pay its 33 million-euro annual contribution, Moscow being one of the top six contributors, which greatly hinders the existence of the Council of Europe, especially since Turkey too has reduced its contribution to a third.

Greatest victim of this situation could even be the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the most well-known legal institution of the Council of Europe, the one that observes the respect of the rights and freedoms enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights.

Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei