PACE seeks to relaunch discussions on frozen conflicts in Europe
Strasbourg, 31.10.2007 – The Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which seeks to enforce the
honouring of obligations and commitments by the Council’s member states,
will be holding a hearing on "frozen conflicts" in cooperation with the
German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), at the
Bundestag in Berlin on 5 and 6 November 2007, focusing on the situations
in Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria.
On joining the Council of Europe, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and
Moldova undertook to seek peaceful settlements to these conflicts, and
the Russian Federation has also entered into specific commitments
regarding certain of these regions.
The hearing has the twofold objective of bringing together leading
experts and government ministers to take stock of the current situation
with regard to each of these conflicts and of initiating a debate on the
Council of Europe’s future role in the conflict settlement process.
On the first day the hearing will take the form of an exchange of views
between the committee’s members and experts (historians, researchers,
international legal specialists, think tank representatives) and will
help clarify the positions of the parties to the conflicts through
discussion of the established facts.
The following day will be devoted to discussions with senior government
representatives from the countries concerned. The committee will then
hold a meeting in camera in the afternoon to analyse the hearing’s
results.
A press conference will take place at 2 pm on 6 November at the
Bundestag (Marie-Elisabeth Lüders Haus, Adele Schreiber Krieger
Strasse 1, Berlin, Room 3.101) with, among others, Moldova’s Minister of
Reintegration Vasilii Sova, Georgia’s State Minister for Conflict
settlement Davit Bakradze, Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Araz
Azimov, the Chair of the Monitoring Committee Eduard Lintner, and SWP
Director Uwe Halbach.
Programme of the hearing
< 2007/20071105_amondoc24R4.pdf>
List of participants
< Docs/2007/20071105_amondoc49.pdf>
Relevant PACE documents and other documents on Nagorno-Karabakh
< tteeDocs/2007/20071105_amondoc46.pdf> ,
Abkhazia, South Ossetia
< 2007/20071105_amondoc47.pdf> and
Transnistria
< tteeDocs/2007/20071105_amondoc48.pdf>
Other reference texts:
Resolution 1497 (2006) on refugees and displaced persons in Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia
< =3D/documents/adoptedtext/ta06/fres1497.htm>
R esolution 1553 (2007) on missing persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan and
Georgia from the conflicts over the Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South
Ossetia regions
< =3D/documents/adoptedtext/ta07/fres1553.htm>
C ontact: Nathalie Bargellini, PACE Communication Unit, mobile: +33 (0)6
65 40 32 82
Press Release
Parliamentary Assembly Communication Unit
Ref: 733a07
Tel: +33 3 88 41 31 93
Fax :+33 3 90 21 41 34
pace.com@coe.int
internet:
The Parliamentary Assembly brings together 318 members from the national
parliaments of the 47 member states.
President: René van der Linden (Netherlands, EPP/CD); Secretary
General of the Assembly: Mateo Sorinas.
Political Groups: SOC (Socialist Group); EPP/CD (Group of the European
People’s Party); ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe);
EDG (European Democratic Group); UEL (Group of the Unified European
Left).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress