PACE's Winter Session: Armenia Is an Exemplary State

• 01.26.2018, 19:45
•  Europe,  Region,  World,  Armenia

Главновости

On January 26 the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) closed. According to the previously approved agenda during the Session urgent debates were held on the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, the role of the Council of Europe, and on the Turkish military intervention in Syria. The Presidents of Armenia and Austria, as well as the Prime Minister and the Crown Princess of Denmark, were among VIPs to address the winter session.

One of the important events of this session was that the Assembly elected its President - Michele Nicoletti. Taking over from Stella Kyriakides (Cyprus, EPP/CD), he is the 31^st President of the Assembly since 1949 and the second Italian to hold this office. It should be noted, that there was only one candidate. Under the Assembly's Rules of Procedure, the President serves for a one-year term of office, which may be renewed once.

Besides, the Assembly elected its Vice-Presidents and a new Commissioner for Human Rights.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, who was also in Strasbourg to attend the January session of the PACE, made a speech and answered to the questions of the parliamentarians. Besides, the President met with newly elected President of the PACE Michele Nicoletti. It should be noted, that Luboš Blaha, the head of Slovakia's delegation to the PACE, said Armenia is an exemplary state, and President Serzh Sargsyan's speech from the assembly's floor was calm and reasonable, "Armenpress" reports.

It should also be added that during the winter session PACE adopted a report of the Azerbaijani delegation's member Sevinj Fataliyeva, titled "Protection of children affected during armed conflicts". Vice-speaker of the RA National Assembly, head of the RA NA delegation to PACE Arpine Hovhannisyan wrote about this on her Facebook page. According to Hovhannisyan, as a result of the huge work of the Armenian delegation and with the support of the PACE partners, all non-Armenian formulations have been removed from the text of the resolution, which were there in the initial version of the draft resolution. Austrian delegate Stefan Senec also said that the wording in the report is compromise for both sides. As a result, the PACE adopted the report with 39 votes in favor and 0 against.

So we can state that the PACE winter session was effective, taking into consideration the successful election of the President of the Assembly, the successful speech of the President of the Republic of Armenia and the positive feedback from it, as well as the adoption of the report submitted by the Azerbaijani delegation without any anti-Armenian formulations.