Information documents SG-AS (2016) 06 4 July 2016 ———————————————— Communication by the Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly to the 1262nd meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies1 (6 July 2016) ———————————————— 1 This document covers past activities of the Assembly since the meeting of the Bureau on 24 June 2016 (Strasbourg) and future activities up to the meeting of the Bureau on 5 September 2016 in Paris. I. Third part-session of 2016 (20-24 June 2016) A. Personalities 1. The following personalities addressed the Assembly (in chronological order): - Mr Thorbjørn JAGLAND, Secretary General of the Council of Europe - Mr Ioannis MOUZALAS, Alternate Minister for Migration Policy of Greece - Ms Marina KALJURAND, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Estonia, Chairperson of the Committee of Ministers - Ms Maud de BOER-BUQUICCHIO, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography - Mr Taavi RÕIVAS, Prime Minister of Estonia - Mr Alexis TSIPRAS, Prime Minister of Greece 2. Their speeches can be found on the web site of the Assembly: http://assembly.coe.int. B. Current affairs debate 3. The Assembly held a current affairs debate on “Reaffirming the role of the Assembly as a pan- European forum for inter-parliamentary dialogue and co-operation”, introduced by Mr Axel Fischer (Germany, EPP/CD). 4. On the basis of a proposal by the Presidential Committee, the Bureau adopted a declaration on Reaffirming the role of the Assembly as a pan-European forum for inter-parliamentary dialogue and co- operation (Appendix 1). C. Election of a judge to the European Court of Human Rights 5. On 21 June 2016, the Assembly elected Mr Tim Eicke as judge to the European Court of Human Rights in respect of the United Kingdom. D. #NoHateNoFear initiative 6. On 20 June 2016, the President of the Assembly, Mr Pedro Agramunt, launched the initiative #NoHateNoFear aimed to encourage all players in society to stand firm against the terrorist threat by refusing to give in to hatred or fear. He invited Assembly members to join the initiative by displaying the initiative logo and participating in the group photo, which can be found on the web site of the Assembly: http://website- pace.net/en_GB/web/apce/no-hate-no-fear. He called upon elected representatives to reassure citizens and to speak out strongly against hate and fear, and support fundamental values and freedoms. E. Media coverage 7. The 3rd part-session was covered by 61 journalists. There are 201 articles published, and 77 photo reports. The Ukrainian and Russian media published the largest number of articles concerning session news (31 and 25), followed by their counterparts from Germany (18), international news outlets (17), Azerbaijan (16), Armenia (14), Greece (13), Italy (9) and France (6). 8. The visits by the Prime Minister of Greece, Mr Alexis Tsipras, the Prime Minister of Estonia, Mr Taavi Röivas, and the debate on “Refugees at risk in Greece” received the larger coverage, including a number of articles focusing on the intervention of Mr Thorbjørn Jagland, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The debate on the functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey and the current affairs debate were well covered by the media at a regional level. The presence of Assembly member, Ms Nadiia Savchenko (Ukraine, EPP/CD) was also largely covered by media across Europe. 9. The launch of the initiative to counter terrorism #NoHateNoFear generated substantial Europe-wide coverage in traditional2 and social media. The photographs taken in the Chamber at the launch of the 2 AFP, Libération, L’Express, Euronews, Le Parisien, Courrier International, La Montagne, A1, Reuters, Yahoo News, Boursorama, Mediapart, Lextimes.fr, ZeitOnline, Die Welt, Tageblatt, ANSA, SDA/ATS, EFE, La Vanguardia, El Diario, 2 #NoHateNoFear initiative were published in major media outlets and posted on social media, such as Twitter and YouTube. The top tweet with the picture saying “the representatives of 47 parliaments assert the values that will help to defeat #terror ” alone had been seen more than 20,000 times. The announcement about this initiative was further re-twitted by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (“we invite all NATOPA members and community to join the #NoHateNoFear initiative @PACE_Equality @PACE_News”) and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (“terrorism knows no religion and no boundaries; wherever it happens, we should stand against this hatred together.#NoHateNoFear @PACE_President”), re-tweeted by the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which generated more than 50,000 re-tweets and likes. More than 200 Assembly members had their photograph taken with the initiative logo, and 28 delivered statements on this occasion. 10. Sixteen TV news offers were made on four subjects (#NoHateNoFear; refugees at risk in Greece, Prime Minister Tsipras and the presence of Nadiia Savchenko) for Associated Press Television News (APTN), Agence France Press (AFP), European News Exchange (ENEX), Eurovision News Exchange (EVN) and Reuters, and 13 radio programmes were prepared. The MediaBox (a web-TV studio) was used to conduct 85 interviews with Assembly members and participants in side-events - an increase of 50% compared to the 2nd part-session 2016. F. Adopted texts 11. Further to debates, the Assembly adopted the following texts: Recommendations Recommendation 2092 (2016) Fighting the over-sexualisation of children (Doc. 14080) Recommendation 2093 (2016) Culture and democracy (Doc. 14070) Recommendation 2094 (2016) Transparency and openness in European institutions (Doc. 14075) Recommendation 2095 (2016) Parliamentary immunity: challenges to the scope of the privileges and immunities enjoyed by members of the Parliamentary Assembly (Doc. 14076) Resolutions Resolution 2118 (2016) Refugees in Greece: challenges and risks – A European responsibility (Doc. 14082) Resolution 2119 (2016) Fighting the over-sexualisation of children (Doc. 14080) Resolution 2120 (2016) Women in the armed forces: promoting equality, putting an end to gender- based violence (Doc. 14073) Resolution 2121 (2016) The functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey (Doc. 14078) Resolution 2122 (2016) Administrative detention (Doc. 14079) Resolution 2123 (2016) Culture and democracy (Doc. 14070) Resolution 2124 (2016) Educational and cultural networks of migrant and diaspora communities (Doc. 14069) Resolution 2125 (2016) Transparency and openness in European institutions (Doc. 14075) Resolution 2126 (2016) The nature of the mandate of members of the Parliamentary Assembly (Doc. 14077) Resolution 2127 (2016) Parliamentary immunity: challenges to the scope of the privileges and immunities enjoyed by members of the Parliamentary Assembly (Doc. 14076) Resolution 2128 (2016) Violence against migrants (Doc. 14066) Resolution 2129 (2016) Road safety in Europe as a public health priority (Doc. 14081) 12. All these texts can be found on the web site of the Assembly: http://assembly.coe.int . Fox News, Hola Ciudad, El Confidencial, Radio Renancensa, Xinhua, Armenia News, Agence Belga, 7 sur 7, La Libre Belgique, N-TV, Stiripersurse, Cyrpus News Agency, Indeks Online, Tocka, NetPress, PlusInfo, B2, etc. 3 G. Hearings and events organised by committees during the part-session Monday 20 June 2016 ► Exchanges of views with the Secretariat of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) in the context of the report prepared by Mr Mogens Jensen (Denmark, SOC), with the 2–3 pm participation of: Room 10, Palais Mr Stanislas Frossard, Executive Secretary of EPAS, on the forthcoming Committee on Culture, Ministerial Conference on good governance in sport and updates on the Science, Education and Media ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Sub-Committee on Education, Competitions Youth and Sport ► Exchanges of views on “Education without borders” in the context of the exhibition of the Israeli delegation, with the participation of: Mr Joseph Moustaki, Secretary of the Knesset delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Embassy of Israel in Paris 2–3 pm Room 1, Palais ► Exchanges of views in the context of the follow-up to Resolution 2112 (2016) on “The humanitarian concerns with regard to people captured during the war in Ukraine” (Rapporteur: Ms Nellija Committee on Migration, Kleinberga (Latvia, ALDE)), with the participation of: Refugees and Displaced Persons Ms Nadiia Savchenko (Ukraine, EPP/CD) Tuesday 21 June 2016 8.30 –9.15 am ► Exchanges of views on “Media freedom and safety of journalists” Room 6, Palais Committee on Culture, in the context of the report prepared by Mr Volodymyr Ariev (Ukraine, PPE/CD), with the Science, Education and Media participation of: Sub-Committee on Media and Information Society Chairpersons of the parliamentary delegations from Azerbaijan, Poland and Turkey Mr Matjaz Gruden, Director of Policy Planning, Council of Europe ► Exchanges of views on “European Cultural Heritage Strategy for the 21st century (Strategy 21) of the Steering Committee for Culture, Heritage and Landscape 9.15 –10 am (CDCPP) and the Council of Europe Action Plan on Building Inclusive Societies Room 6, Palais (2016-19)” Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media in the context of the report prepared by Ms Vesna Marjanović (Serbia, SOC), with the Sub-Committee on Culture, participation of: Diversity and Heritage Ms Claudia Luciani, Director, Directorate of Democratic Governance, DGII, Council of Europe ► Exchange