site.btaCounter-Terror Efforts, Protection of Democracy and Rule of Law Top Sofia Agenda of PACE Standing Committee

Counter-Terror Efforts, Protection of Democracy and Rule of Law Top Sofia Agenda of PACE Standing Committee

Sofia, November 27 (BTA) - The combat against terrorism and the protection of democracy, human rights and rule of law top the agenda of the Sofia meeting of the Standing Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Friday. The forum is held during the Bulgarian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers (November 2015-May 2016).

Participating are some 60 parliamentarians from Council of Europe member states.

They started the day with a minute of silence for the victims of terror attacks in France, Russia, Tunisia and Turkey.

In her remarks at the opening of the meeting PACE President Anne Brasseur stressed the need of overcoming political divisions to allow the countries to focus on the root causes of extremism and radicalism. She called for ending hatred, discrimination and intolerance and start living together.

She said the fight should be against terror, not the migrants or refugees or other protection seekers, and warned that the risk of populism is greater than ever and that this populism has its roots in hatred.

Anne Brasseur went on to talks about what she sees the most important aspect of migration: integration, and said that it is a two-way process in which everybody learns to live together.

She underscored the importance of strengthening solidarity and cooperation among all countries, including the Western Balkans, amid the migrant crisis, and called on the parliaments of the member states to take prompt action to ratify the additional protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism.

The document criminalizes the recruitment, financing and training of terrorists, and commercial activity for terrorist purposes.

In her remarks at the forum, Bulgarian Parliament leader Tsetska Tsacheva expressed her belief that the governments, civil society and the global democratic community will double their energy and efforts in their unrelenting struggle against terror.

The terrorist attacks with the participation of European citizens, the migrant crisis after the worsening of the conflicts in the Middle East, the violations of international law in Ukraine in 2014 and in Georgia in 2008 require of the CoE member states to reconfirm the principles and values of this organization and to address jointly the problems that arise, said Tsacheva.