site.btaBulgaria to Seek End of Post-Monitoring Dialogue with Council of Europe by End-2016

Bulgaria to Seek End of Post-Monitoring Dialogue with Council of Europe by End-2016

Strasbourg, January 26 (BTA Special Correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov) - Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov said he had again raised the issue of an end to Bulgaria's post-monitoring dialogue with the Council of Europe (CoE). Mitov talked to Bulgarian journalists here on Monday evening, where he is taking part in the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in his capacity as Chairman of the CoE Committee of Ministers.

"We are the only EU Member State which is still subject to such mechanism, and considering the reforms we are carrying out now, a clear discussion should start on an end to this phase for Bulgaria," Mitov said. "I am prepared to work with all parliamentary groups so as to achieve the maximum effect, because this requires the efforts of the whole State and above all of the MPs. I think we will find a way to reach agreement on a very serious debate at the CoE Parliamentary Assembly on dropping this mechanism. The next report is due not earlier than at the end of this year, which gives us time to focus our efforts so that this will be the last such report. I don't say this is 100 per cent certain, but this is the ambition," the Foreign Minister explained.

The post-monitoring dialogue reports partly overlap with the areas monitored by the European Commission under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism. The CoE reports cover a broader range of issues, including the political situation, the election process, and conditions at the places of deprivation of liberty.

Mitov noted that one of the top priorities on the programme of the Bulgarian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers is the signing of the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention). "Following the events in Cologne, this is becoming a particularly important element of our work at the CoE. We call on all States which have not yet signed this Convention to do so as soon as possible. The CoE provides ample opportunities for the protection of women's rights in a most categorical way, regardless of where they come from. We saw that this is a significant issue after what happened in Cologne, such things must not be allowed to recur," the Foreign Minister commented.

He described as "alarming" the increase in the number of States which ignore the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. In his opinion, it is important to understand the reasons for this and that the Council of Europe Member States should take urgent measures, as Bulgaria did. In his words, "a dialogue with Moscow is needed so as to obtain guarantees that it will not close the door to honouring certain universal standards to which commitments have been assumed." "Since the start of the crisis in Ukraine, the CoE's relations with Russia have been very complicated. We are trying to keep the door open to dialogue, but realities must be spelled out as they are," Mitov stated.