“Where there is popular will, there is change. Where there is political will, there is genuine reform,” today said Maia Sandu, President of the Republic of Moldova, addressing the Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg.

Referring to the recent Presidential election, she said that “people voted for serious change”, meaning justice, better standards of living, access to quality education, healthcare and better infrastructure, as well as to “put an end to pervasive corruption”. Change means that “Moldovans will trust their state”, President Sandu underlined.

The Moldovan people “want the Presidency to join forces with a new parliament and a new government to clean the country of the vices that are holding it back - and they ask for your support in doing so,” she added. And this time, “Moldovan politicians should not fail the people.”

The drive for reform must continue “to come from the people, no matter what obstacles may block the road. And there are many obstacles. Corrupt forces will fight back, because they stand to lose not only their illicit revenues, but also their freedom.” But people “are determined to fight for change, and count on the support of Moldova’s partners in the Council of Europe,” President Sandu concluded.

On the occasion of the German Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Minister of State for Europe Michael Roth will participate in the spring session of PACE (19-22 April 2021) which will take place in a hybrid format.

The President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, the President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, and the Secretary General of the organisation, Marija Pejčinović Burić, will also address PACE.

At this session, the Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, will present her 2020 annual report and the Assembly will award its Václav Havel Human Rights Prize.

There have been requests for urgent debates on "The arrest and detention of Alexei Navalny in January 2021" and "The functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey", as well as for current affairs debates on "Covid passports or certificates: protection of fundamental rights and legal implications", "Armenian prisoners of war and other captives", "Covid-19 vaccination certificates: how to protect public health and human rights?", and "Russian threat to the pursuit of peace in Europe".

Topics on the agenda include a debate on the Assembly's vision of the Council of Europe's strategic priorities and a joint debate on human rights violations and the need for electoral reform in Belarus.

The OECD's work on taxing the digital economy with the participation of its Secretary General Ángel Gurría, discrimination against people with chronic and long-term illnesses, post-monitoring dialogue with Montenegro, the preservation of national minorities and a European policy on diasporas will also be discussed.

The Permanent Delegation of the Parliament of Georgia, led by the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Kakha Kuchava, will take part in the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on April 19-22.

According to the press service of the Parliament, the main topics of discussion at the session will be the global pandemic and Covid-19 vaccination, the situation of ethnic minorities in Council of Europe member states, Council of Europe strategic priorities and current processes in the world.

Givi Mikanadze, a member of the Georgian parliamentary delegation, will address the Assembly regarding the legal status of ethnic minorities in Georgia and the steps taken by the state for their full integration.

On the occasion of the German Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Minister of State for Europe Michael Roth will participate in the spring session of PACE (19-22 April 2021) which will take place in a hybrid format.

The President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, the President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, and the Secretary General of the organisation, Marija Pejčinović Burić, will also address PACE.

At this session, the Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, will present her 2020 annual report and the Assembly will award its Václav Havel Human Rights Prize.

There have been requests for urgent debates on "The arrest and detention of Alexei Navalny in January 2021" and "The functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey", as well as for current affairs debates on "Covid passports or certificates: protection of fundamental rights and legal implications", "Armenian prisoners of war and other captives", "Covid-19 vaccination certificates: how to protect public health and human rights?", and "Russian threat to the pursuit of peace in Europe".

Topics on the agenda include a debate on the Assembly's vision of the Council of Europe's strategic priorities and a joint debate on human rights violations and the need for electoral reform in Belarus.

The OECD's work on taxing the digital economy with the participation of its Secretary General Ángel Gurría, discrimination against people with chronic and long-term illnesses, post-monitoring dialogue with Montenegro, the preservation of national minorities and a European policy on diasporas will also be discussed.

Strasbourg, 15.04.2021 – On the occasion of the German Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Minister of State for Europe Michael Roth will participate in the spring session of PACE (19-22 April 2021) which will take place in a hybrid format, allowing members to participate remotely or attend in person in Strasbourg.

The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, and the Secretary General of the organisation, Marija Pejčinović Burić, will also address PACE.

At this session, the Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, will present her 2020 annual report and the Assembly will award its Václav Havel Human Rights Prize.

There have been requests for urgent debates on "The arrest and detention of Alexei Navalny in January 2021" and on "The functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey".

Topics on the agenda include a debate on the Assembly's vision of the Council of Europe's strategic priorities and a joint debate on human rights violations and the need for electoral reform in Belarus.

The OECD's work on taxing the digital economy with the participation of its Secretary General Ángel Gurría, discrimination against persons dealing with chronic and long-term illnesses, post-monitoring dialogue with Montenegro, the preservation of national minorities and a European policy on diasporas will also be discussed.

The Assembly will decide its final agenda on the opening day of the session.

The Majority Leader, the PACE Vice-President Irakli Kobakhidze presides the Winter Session with the agenda including the vaccination issue.

The session is attended by the Parliamentary Delegation of Georgia, headed by the Vice-Speaker of the Parliament, Kakha Kutchava.

The Winter Session is held on January 24-29. It is the first visit of the Parliamentary Delegation in the 10th Term.

The Delegation is composed of Irakli Kobakhidze, Mariam Kvrivishvili, Givi Mikanadze, Irakli Chikovani and Tamar Taliashvili.

“I am glad that I was approved as the Vice-President of PACE with the second term”, - the Majority Leader, member of the Parliamentary delegation to PACE, Irakli Kobakhidze stated.

His first meeting on this position was held with the PACE President, Rik Daems.

The parties dwelt on the cooperation between the Parliament of Georgia and the PACE and touched upon the developments in Georgia and the priorities of Georgian authorities.

“It was an important bilateral meeting with the PACE President. We discussed our cooperation prospects between our Delegation and the PACE”, - I. Kobakhidze noted.

The PACE opened the winter sessions with the agenda including the Report by the Observation Mission on the Parliamentary Elections 2020 in Georgia, introduced by the Head of the Mission, Tiny Kox.

The discussion was attended by the Parliamentary Delegation of Georgia. It is noteworthy that it is a final report to be submitted to the international organizations.

As Mr. Kox stated, the elections in Georgia were competitive with the returns not subject to any doubt. He called on the Georgian opposition forces to commence the Parliamentary activity.

“As the international observers presume, the elections were competitive and the fundamental freedom was adhered to. The legislative changes in Georgia adopted in close cooperation with and by the recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR and the Council of Europe facilitated in the formation of the legal frame. 48 parties were running for the election and 10 of them were elected. The ruling party did not make a clear line during the campaign with the state and the second problem is that other parties opted to boycott the Parliamentary activity. The co-rapporteurs made the statements and called on the political parties to start the Parliamentary activity. It was reasonable advice. I also would like to join the call to the dialogue”.

The Head of the Parliamentary Delegation to PACE, Kakha Kutchava stated that the ruling party is committed to cooperating with every party to ensure the improvement of the standards of the administration of the elections.

“The municipal elections are scheduled in 2021 in Georgia and our political party is committed to cooperating with every party concerned to ensure the consideration of the recommendations, introduce changes to the legislation and improve the administration of the elections”, - he noted.

He thanked the observers for arriving in Georgia to observe the electrons despite the global pandemic and stated that the Georgian Government truly strived to ensure the compliance of the elections with the international healthcare standards and recommendations.

He noted that despite the mostly positive assessments, the election process detected the gaps. He affirmed the commitment to respond to these gaps and underlined the importance of the engagement of the international partners.

“We hail the mostly positive assessments made by the international society clearly underlining that “Parliamentary Elections of October 31 were competitive and the fundamental freedoms were adhered to”.

Despite this, a series of gaps have been still detected. We appreciate the report by Mr. Kox and affirm our commitment to adequately respond to the gaps identified by his mission, including the financing of the electoral campaign, which is the subject of interest of PACE and international monitors after the Presidential Elections 2018. Engagement of our international partners in this process is very important and we expect certain recommendations”.

The opposition parties shall as well participate, he noted: “Our international partners keep calling on the Georgian opposition to start the Parliamentary activity and we hope the opposition will not reject their mandates granted to them by 800,000 electors and will move the democratic process from the streets to the Parliament as there is no evidence or the basis to put the election returns under doubt. Minor confusion was entailed from the simultaneous count of votes, which served as the main argument for the opposition, though in 1.5 months the observation mission recognized the PVT-related gaps”, - he added and responded to the statements by some speakers and underlined that unfortunately, we often deal with disinformation: “I would like to assure you that unfortunately, we often become the victims of disinformation in the XXI century. None of the candidates have been detained, especially two weeks earlier. As to the statement by the local NGOs that these were the worst elections, let me note that in 1.5 months they made the official statement about their mistake regarding the simultaneous count”.

The Parliamentary Delegation participates in the PACE winter sessions with the agenda including the Annual Report providing the outcomes of monitoring in 2020. The report provides the assessments about the progress of the countries subject to the monitoring or participating in the post-monitoring dialogue.

The member of the Delegation, Irakli Chikovani thanked the rapporteurs and members of the Monitoring Committee for their efforts and stated that after accessing the CoE, Georgia has been through a significant transformation.

 In 2020, Georgia achieved the culmination of this process and assumed the presidency of the Committee of Ministers.

“I believe that against the pandemic, we left our trace and enriched the CoE agenda. Our priority issues – human rights and environmental protection – were widely supported, including from the presidency candidate states”, - he noted and added that the democracy is not static but envisages higher aspiration to protection and engagement and thus, Georgia in cooperation with its partners, keeps the planning of its European way.

“I would like to attract your attention to the new agenda of the ruling party – “Building the European State” and which is a strategic stage for Georgia to make the application for the EU membership in 2024”.

The ruling party managed to establish the system to ensure the most inclusive and multi-party Parliament in the history of Georgia: “As the report provides, the Constitutional reform followed the acute opposition, though we managed to form the system leading to the most inclusive and multiparty Parliament in history of Georgia. Despite the gaps, the international observation missions concluded that the elections 2020 were competitive and the fundamental freedoms were adhered to, where the political parties were free to hold their campaigns. Some of the refractory opposition parties adhering to the principle “everything or nothing” refused to accept their mandates. At the same time, we understand that we need to keep our way and we are committed to undertaking more reforms and investigate each accusation through the Parliamentary Fact-Finding Commission”.

As he noted, the report underlines the situation on the occupied territories of Georgia: “A couple of days ago, not so far from this place, in European Court of Human Rights, Georgia celebrated one of the greatest victories in its modern history – as the ECHR decided, Russia is legally responsible for the gross violation of the international law and human rights in Russia-Georgia August war 2008 and after the war. We, Georgians, as Europeans believe that the strong principles of the international law will win and human rights will be protected”.

The member of the Delegation, Tamar Taliashvili stated that the report also provides the progress of Georgia in 2020 and concerns the political developments of 2019. 

“We fully share the concern expressed in the report entailed with the fact that some radical opposition parties boycott the Parliament while the election returns allowed them to ensure the Parliamentary oversight. As the report provides, the term includes the period when Georgia re-proved that the Georgian democratic institutions are committed to addressing the challenges and the ruling majority is ready to hold the political dialogue, including with the radical opposition. As a result, the “Georgian Dream” has initiated the Constitutional changes leading to a more balanced political system, which facilitated the Parliament to be more diverse and pluralist. As to the Parliamentary Elections 2020, the report underlines its competitiveness and protection of fundamental freedoms, as well as the freedom of the political parties to hold their campaigns”.

According to her, the monitoring report, along with the positive assessments, also provides the recommendations for further progress: “The ruling party made a public statement about its decision to adopt the electoral reform providing the recommendations by the international observation missions. We fully share the concern expressed in the monitoring report entailed with the fact that that some radical opposition parties boycott the Parliament while the election returns allowed them to ensure the Parliamentary oversight. I also would like to take advantage and thank the EU and US Ambassadors for their positive contribution to the political dialogue. Also, let me underline the importance of your statement about the ongoing occupation of two regions of Georgia. The report reflects the condemnation of the gross human rights violations, which was enhanced by the ECHR's recent decision on August war 2008. I also would like to stress the importance of this decision for the victims of the war and our country”.

The member of the Delegation, Givi Mikanadze in his speech noted that for the first time during the last two decades, the newly elected Parliament consists of 14 political parties and such diversity of the political actors is a result of the will of Georgian citizens: 

“Unfortunately, the opposition parties do not value the support expressed by their electors and rejecting the mandates, try to sabotage the Parliamentary activity. The report underlines that the Parliamentary Elections 2020 were estimated by the international observation organizations as competitive, where the fundamental freedoms were adhered to and where the parties enjoyed the freedom to hold their campaigns. It is noteworthy that more than 80 000 observers were observing the elections countrywide”.

He dwelt on the simultaneous counting by one of the NGOs, which initially revealed the deviation of 2.4% from the official results made by the CEC.

“The leaders of “Georgian Dream” officially addressed this NGO and called on to disclose information about 850 polling stations where the count was simultaneously held. Initially, NGO refused but in mid-December, they stated that the gap was detected by the internal audit in the formula of counting. After elimination of the gap, their results coincided with the CEC results. This NGO stated that their PVT detected a discrepancy in 8% of the electoral districts. “Georgian Dream” also required to disclose the list of these districts. According to the CEC data, this so-called “imbalance” related to the excessive bulletins, was described only in 19 protocols out of 3657, unlike the statement of NGO. The “Georgian Dream” has not yet received any data from the observation organization”.

He noted that along with the boycott, the radical opposition openly started to express discontent towards the international observations, international politicians and the facilitators, which led to a series of attacks on the EU and US Ambassadors especially.

“The “Georgian Dream” submitted the initiative to set up the Ad Hoc Fact-Finding Commission in the Parliament to investigate the Elections and called on the opposition parties to participate. It is no surprise that the opposition rejected this offer, which confirms their will of marginalization and will to keep their protest in streets instead of the Parliamentary activity. We are oriented to the future and consider the further enhancement of democratic processes in Georgia. “Georgian Dream” is aspired to cooperate with our international partners, including the PACE to focus on the gaps detected during the last Parliamentary Elections”.

The monitoring procedures cover 11 countries (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine) and 3 countries participating in the post-monitoring dialogue (Bulgaria, Montenegro and North Macedonia).

“The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has discussed election report prepared by Tini Kox today and reiterated that the elections were competitive and free in Georgia,” Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream Party, stated on Monday.

According to him, PACE approved the observation mission’s report, including recommendations.

“This recommendation reflects our will. In particular, to check all violations revealed in this election. That’s why we’ve proposed the opposition to set up a parliamentary commission,” GD Chairman said.

Irakli Kobakhidze stresses that the CoE calls on the opposition to engage in parliamentary work. “We hope the opposition will take these statements into account,” he said.

He also echoed the decision on re-electing him as PACE Vice-President. “I am happy to be approved as PACE Vice-President for the second term in a row,” Kobakhidze added.

Strasbourg, 25.01.2021 – Rik Daems, re-elected today for a second one-year term as President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), thanked members for their confidence and welcomed the holding of PACE’s first hybrid plenary session.

In his re-investiture speech, he stressed that while PACE’s savoir faire had brought many positive results throughout 2020 – be it the establishment of red lines not to be crossed during the Covid-19 pandemic, new standards in the field of artificial intelligence or the “trialogue” with the Committee of Ministers – the faire savoir was impossible as members could not meet under normal conditions. “Meeting in person is essential to interconnect, to convince and be convinced and to take on board all perspectives,” he added.

Rik Daems called on members not to ask “what the Council of Europe can do for us”, but “to look at what we can do to uphold the values and therefore contribute to the activities and mission of the Council of Europe.”

“Why are we here? Because we care about fundamental rights and freedoms, democracy and the rule of law,” he stressed, inviting all members “to see PACE as a vehicle for upholding the values we share. Common values are more important than our interests.”

“We, members of this Assembly, care about the fact that people are equal. Being equal is not being the same, this is why we are united in diversity. We care about human rights to be enjoyed by all citizens in all our 47 member States.”

“We care that people are free to enjoy and able to pursue their happiness. We care about the fact that no one should be above the law. This is what the rule of law is all about. Because we think, we care, we need to help people to decide. All members should be on board, this is what democracy is about,” he concluded.

Strasbourg, 24.01.2021 - The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will hold its 2021 winter plenary session from January 25 to 28 in a hybrid manner, allowing members to participate remotely or attend in person in Strasbourg.

The Assembly will debate the ethical, legal and practical considerations of COVID-19 vaccines. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will address parliamentarians in the debate.

There have been requests for three urgent debates on:

- "The arrest and detention of Alexei Navalny in January 2021"
- "The worsening situation in Belarus"
- "Freedom of expression (Article 10 of the ECHR) under threat by 'Big Tech' Companies".

Three current affairs debate requests have also been submitted under the titles:

- "Prohibition of Russian and other national minorities languages in Ukraine"
- “Unjustifiable delay in repatriation of the Armenian prisoners of war and other captives by Azerbaijani authorities as violation of the European International Human Rights Standards”
- “The actual human rights situation in temporary occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol during Covid-19 pandemics”.

Other topics on the agenda include ethnic profiling in Europe, restrictions on NGO activities in Council of Europe member States, and discrimination against persons dealing with chronic and long-term illnesses.

During the session, the Assembly will elect the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the Secretary General of the Assembly and the judges to the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Greece and Switzerland. These elections will be held by individual electronic voting.

The European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders will address the members of the Assembly and answer their questions, as will the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany, Heiko Maas (within the framework of the German presidency of the Committee of Ministers) and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić (who will present her communication).

Debates will also be held on the independence of judges in Poland and in the Republic of Moldova (with the participation of Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, former Federal Minister of Justice of Germany), and on the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. Debates on the progress of the Assembly’s monitoring procedure and on post-monitoring dialogue with Montenegro are foreseen.

A report on parliamentary elections in Georgia will also be discussed. Lastly, the Assembly will determine its position on the modification of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure – follow-up to Resolution 2319 (2020) on the complementary joint procedure between the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly in response to a serious violation by a member State of its statutory obligations.