Proceedings of the European Conference of Presidents of Parliament (Strasbourg, 24-25 October 2019)

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Proceedings of the European Conference of Presidents of Parliament (Strasbourg, 24-25 October 2019) http://assembly.coe.int Final edition Proceedings of the European Conference of Presidents of Parliament (Strasbourg, 24-25 October 2019) European Conference of Presidents of Parliament TABLE OF CONTENTS Opening of the Conference ..................................................................................................................... 3 Ms Liliane MAURY PASQUIER, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe ..................3 Ms Marija PEJČINOVIĆ BURIĆ, Secretary General of the Council of Europe ....................................................5 Ms Marija PEJČINOVIĆ BURIĆ, Secretary General of the Council of Europe ....................................................5 Theme 1: "Our Common European Home": the next 70 years .....................................................................8 Mr Richard FERRAND, President of the National Assembly, France .................................................................8 Ms Marina CAROBBIO GUSCETTI, President of the National Council, Switzerland ........................................ 10 Mr Andreas NORLÉN, President, Riksdag, Sweden ........................................................................................ 11 Mr Viktoras PRANCKIETIS, President, Seimas, Lithuania ............................................................................... 12 Mr Ararat MIRZOYAN, President, National Assembly, Armenia ....................................................................... 13 Ms Cristina NARBONA, Vice-President, Senado, Spain .................................................................................. 14 Mr Michał SEWERYŃSKI, Vice-President, Senat, Poland ............................................................................... 15 Ms Alia HATOUG-BOURAN, President, Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, PAM ......................... 16 Mr Wolfgang SOBOTKA, President, Nationalrat, Austria ................................................................................. 16 Mr Pat The Cope GALLAGHER, Vice-President, Dáil Éireann, Ireland ............................................................ 18 Mr Gérard LARCHER, President, Senat, France ............................................................................................. 18 Mr Mustafa ŞENTOP, President, Grand National Assembly, Turkey ................................................................ 19 Ms Tone WILHELMSEN TRØEN, President, Stortinget, Norway ..................................................................... 20 Mr Viacheslav VOLODIN, President, State Duma, Russian Federation............................................................ 21 Mr Andrej DANKO, President, Národná Rada, Slovak Republic....................................................................... 22 Mr Gordan JANDROKOVIĆ, President, Hrvatski Sabor, Croatia ...................................................................... 22 Mr Henn PÕLLUAAS, President, Riigikogu, Estonia ........................................................................................ 23 Mr Angelo FARRUGIA, President, Il-Kamra Tad Deputati, Malta ..................................................................... 24 Mr Dmytro RAZUMKOV, President, Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine ........................................................................ 24 Mr Talat XHAFERI, President, Sobranie, North Macedonia ............................................................................. 26 Mr Ogtay ASADOV, President, Milli Mejlis, Azerbaijan .................................................................................... 27 Mr Gramoz RUÇI, President, Kuvendi, Albania ............................................................................................... 27 Mr Constantine TASSOULAS, President, Vouli Ton Ellinon, Greece................................................................ 28 Ms Ināra MŪRNIECE, President, Saeima, Latvia ............................................................................................ 29 Mr Ivan BRAJOVIĆ, President, Skupština, Montenegro ................................................................................... 30 Ms Borjana KRIŠTO, President, Predstavnicki dom, Bosnia and Herzegovina ................................................. 31 Ms Maja GOJKOVIĆ, President, Narodna Skupština, Serbia ........................................................................... 31 Mr George TSERETELI, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE ............................................. 32 Mr János LATORCAI, President, Orszaggyülés, Hungary ............................................................................... 33 Mrs Carmen Ileana MIHĂLCESCU, President, Camera Deputaților, Romania ................................................. 34 Mr Demetris SYLLOURIS, President, House of Representatives, Cyprus ........................................................ 34 Mr Stéphane VALERI, President, Conseil National, Monaco............................................................................ 35 Mr Dejan ŽIDAN, President, Državni zbor, Slovenia ........................................................................................ 36 Mr Jan Anthonie BRUIJN, President, Eerste Kamer, Netherlands .................................................................... 37 Mr André FLAHAUT, Vice-President, Chambre des Représentants, Belgium .................................................. 37 Mr Jānis VUCĀNS, President, Baltic Assembly ............................................................................................... 38 Mr Steingrimur J. SIGFUSSON, President, Althingi, Iceland ............................................................................ 39 Mr Karl BADER, President, Bundesrat, Austria ................................................................................................ 40 Ms Zinaida GRECEANÎI, President, Parlament, Republic of Moldova .............................................................. 41 Mr Titus CORLĂȚEAN, Vice-President of the Senate, Romania ...................................................................... 42 2 Opening of the Conference Ms Liliane MAURY PASQUIER, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Ladies and Gentlemen, I invite you to take a seat. Madame Secretary General, Dear Colleagues, It is a great honour and pleasure for me to welcome you all today to Strasbourg for this European Conference of Presidents of Parliament, which is of particular significance this year as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Council of Europe. I am deeply convinced that the reason we are celebrating this anniversary is because Europe and, in particular, our fellow citizens need an organisation like ours. Indeed, our political mission – to build greater unity among European states in order to defend and promote human rights, democracy and the rule of law – is now more legitimate and important than ever. We therefore need to focus on all that we have achieved and establish the main lines of future action for our organisation. The themes chosen for our debates will guide us in our deliberations and, if I may, I would like to briefly introduce them. In order to have a better idea of how the future will look, we will start by examining the state of our “European Common Home” as it celebrates its 70th anniversary. This home is built on a solid foundation but, given the rapid changes taking place in our societies, it faces many and diverse challenges. First of all, there are external challenges with the growing question marks over our multilateral co-operation mechanisms. Today, we are witnessing a degree of disengagement in the multilateral implementation of international human rights standards. This is reflected in particular in the challenging of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and in a certain “politicisation” of fundamental human rights issues. In addition, frozen and open conflicts in Europe and at its borders are a considerable obstacle not only to international dialogue and co-operation, but also to our human rights protection system, as conflict-affected territories are “grey areas” in which individuals are de facto prohibited from accessing our mechanisms for the protection of their human rights. As you are all aware, our organisation has had to face an institutional and political crisis in recent years. Fortunately, we have managed to shoulder our responsibilities. We must now move forward, but we must not forget our commitment to respect for international law, which must be fully reasserted through a frank and open dialogue between all the member states of our organisation. Then there are the internal challenges to our democratic institutions and mechanisms. Faced with growing inequalities and the marginalisation of certain sections of the population, we are witnessing an erosion of trust in the institutions of representative democracy. At the same time, direct democracy mechanisms, coupled with the exponential advances of new means of communication such as social networks, are increasingly being used or even manipulated by populist or extremist movements. Lastly, we cannot ignore global challenges such as, for example, digitisation and the ever-growing use of artificial intelligence, climate change and migration. In order to tackle these new challenges, we need to develop a human rights-based approach in order to continue to defend all that we have achieved for the well- being of our 830 million fellow citizens. In this context, the role of
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