CoE Ministers Committee under crossfire by Assembly and INGOs on SG Election Rules, ECHR judgements+

    CoE Committee of Ministers came under crossfire, this week in Strasbourg, accused by CoE's Parliamentary Assembly to "violate the rules" on new CoE Secretary General's Election, but also to fail to do its duty on ensuring respect of ECHR's judgements, where double standards were noted even by mainstream International Human Rights NGOs..     

The unprecedented, on-going "war" between CoE's Ambassadors and MEPs resulted into a 1 - 1 "Pat", and a deadlock which risks to leave the paneuropean organization of Human Rights headless for the first time in its 60 Years History, i.e. without a Secretary General from September 2009.

 Unless a crucial but discreet meeting between the heads of both bodies finds a way to break the deadlock on July 13.    

The Assembly was obliged to refuse to vote for the election of CoE's new SG, as long as its choice is restricted to only 2 candidates, both Socialists, imposed by the Committee (composed of Ambassadors), who still refuses to let MEPs free to choose among all 4 nominated candidates from various big parties (i.e. also ChristianDemocrats/EPP and Liberals, etc).

    The move came after 2 crystal-clear early Warnings, by 2 Resolutions unanimously adopted by CoE's Assembly since April and May, (i.e. 3 Months earlier), asking CoE's Committee of Ministers' Deputies to allow MEPs to exercice their Right to elect the new CoE Scecretary General democratically, i.e. out of "all the 4 (four) Candidates", in order to be able to freely choose between various Political tendencies (ChristianDemocrat, Liberal, Socialist, etc), instead of obliging them to endorse only among 2 both "Socialists" candidates (See previous NewsReports).

    But until late June, the Committee refused to change a iota in an unprecedented decision it had taken behind closed doors late April, by excluding 2 mainstream canditates (the Presidents of the biggest Group in CoE's Assembly : ChristianDemocrats, Belgian Senator Van Den Brande, and of the Liberal Group : Hungarian MEP Eorsi), and imposing only 2 "Socialist" candidates, who held important National jobs in their countries, but not yet at European level, (the outgoing President of Norway's Parliament, Jagland, and former Polish Foreign Minister, Cimoszewicz, both former Prime Ministers in the 1990ies).  

Curiously, even at a CoE Ministerial meeting in Madrid, last May 2009, CoE Assembly's President, Lluis de Puig was reportedly hindered even to speak to Foreign Ministers (of whom more than 12 were absent) before they end their own debate about the Election of the SG, CoE's Rapporteur, Armenian MEP Davit Harutyunyan revealed.

 On the contrary, in the 27-member countries' strong EU, concerning the election of EU Commission's new President, even ..Heads of State and Government themselves expressed their respect for EuroMPs' wishes, accepting to consult and wait until EU Parliament decides if and when it wants to vote, resulting to a postponement of the vote from July to September. But, among  the 47-member countries' strong CoE, some simple Ambassadors tried to impose to CoE's Parliamentary Assembly their desiderata, without letting it make a free choice, for reasons which were never clearly explained to Citizens..    

    In consequence, CoE's Assembly was obliged to put into execution its threat, by refusing to vote for the election of the new CoE SG in such conditions, during the June Plenary Session.

    This deadlock provoked an unprecedented "Crisis" at the CoE, because out-going CoE's SG, Terry Davis' mandate stops at the end of August, while the next CoE Assembly's Session is only at the end of September-beginning of October, and some even started to speak about a possibility to postpone the new SG's election even later, .. on January 2010.!.

    The new Chairman of CoE's Committee of Ministers, new Slovenian Foreign Minister Samuel Žbogar,  reading a text, expressed the "disappointment" of the Committee, but observers noted that he changed, at the last minute, its initial draft, which spoke for an election of CoE's SG "on September", into a vague reference "at the earliest possible moment"..

    In the meantime, (and if another solution is not found during Summer time, f.ex. by an "exceptional session" or otherwise), either the mandate of the out-going CoE SG, Terry Davis, will have to be extended beyond the 1st of September, when it normally ends, or it's the Deputy CoE SG, Mrs Maud de Boer-Buquichio, who will have to take over "ad interim"..
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    CoE's Assembly is legally competent for the election of the SG, while the Committee's competence is legally entitled only to transmit the list of candidates to MEPs for debate and vote.

 The 4 nominated Candidates, heard by CoE's Committee of Ministers are :  The Belgian Senator Luc Van den Brande, President of the ChristianDemocrat/EPP Group in CoE's Parliamentary Assembly and Chairman of the EU Committee of Regions, former Minister-President of Flanders federated entity.  The Hungarian MEP Matyas Eorsi, President of the Liberal Group in CoE's Parliamentary Assembly and former Minister.  The outgoing Speaker of the Norwegian Parliament (2005-2009) Former Prime Minister (1996-1997) and Foreign Minister (2000-2001) Thorbjørn Jagland, recently elected Chair of the Norwegian Committee for Nobel Peace prize. And Senator Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, former Foreign Minister (2001-2005) and Prime Minister (1996-1997) of Poland. (Both Socialists).    

All 4 being competent and able politicians. Nobody explained why the Committee should limit the Assembly's right to freely choose among various political tendencies' candidates, instead of obliging them to endorse only Socialists..

An obviously embarassing fact, since the out-going CoE SG  and CoE Assembly's President are both Socialists, as well as CoE Assembly's Director, CoE's Commissioner of Human Rights, (regardless of his objectivity, respected by all), and the Committee's controversial decision was taken under the Chairmanship of a Socialist Government (Spain, on May 2009), after a technical opinion given by a Socialist Head of Legal Experts. Moreover, the Committee's "Bureau" still has a "Socialist" Chair (Slovenia) and is composed of ...Turkey and 5 "Socialist" governments' ambassadors, plus 1 Liberal...

Only after January 2010 one ChristianDemocrat/EPP might partly take over the Committee's chair, as Switzerland's rotating President, (but the Foreign Ministry will remain "Socialist" even then)..

In such a context, new Slovenian Foreign Minister Mr. Zbogar's 5 times repeated references to a vague ..."ability and suitability" as supposed new criteria for CoE SG's election, inevitably appeared more as a way to avoid replying on the substance of many MEPs' critical questions, (under the careful eye of the Committee's Secretariat), than as a real and convincing explanation..

    Developing further a several critical arguments briefly presented by CoE Assembly's President, Lluis de Puig (Spanish Socialist), the Chair of its Human Rights Committee, Assembly's vice-President, Cyprus' MEP Christos Pourgourides, joined by the experienced former Assemly's President Dutch MEP Rene Van der Linden, strongly denounced, at a Press Conference on Wednesday, the restrictive attitude of CoE Committee of Ministers Deputies (Ambassadors), accused of a threefold disrespect  :

- for "violating the Rules" of the CoE on the Election of its SG ;

- for showing contempt on CoE Assembly's right to make a "Free and Democratic choice" between various political candidacies ;

- while also persisting to fail also in its duty to ensure the implementation of ECHR's Judgements, particularly vis a vis States who grossly violate Human Rights many times, and/or keeping a "Double Standards" stance.

    Pourgourides, speaking on behalf of the largest Group of MEPs : that of ChristianDemocrats/EPP, revealed that the Assembly had proposed to the Committee of Ministers Deputies to settle any differend on the Legality of the controversial Procedure they chose, by referring "jointly" the matter to the Highest CoE's body of eminent and Independent Jurists (mainly University Professors, Heads of national Supreme Courts, etc), specialized in Democratic Elections and Constitutional Law, traditionally known as "Commission of Venice".

    But the Ambassadorial Committe refused to let its decision be checked by Indepedent Jurists, even of the CoE, MEP Pourgourides denounced. Therefore, he anounced the EPP Group's decision to ask CoE Assembly's Bureau, on Friday, to refer the matter to the "Venice Commission" at its own initiative.

    Moreover, the Secretariat of CoE's Committee of Ministers' Deputies refused to unveal what was said during the Hearings of 4 nominated candidates to the post of CoE's new Secretary General, dropping another proposal made earlier by the Head of France's Delegation to the PanEuropean Assembly, MEP Jean-Claude Mignon...

Therefore, Mignon proposed "to open anew the CoE SG Election procedure, with New, Transparent and jointly agreed rules", between the Committee and the Assembly. But even this was apparently dismissed..

    - "There cannot be a Free and Democratic Election" of CoE's new SG by the Assembly, "if they don't give us a Free Choice" among all 4 Politically various Candidates, stressed Top MEP Rene Van Der Linden.

 The only thing filtered behind closed doors from the Committee which excluded 2 among them unofficially, was that they did so  because the other 2 had been Prime Ministers for just one (1) Year, thirteen (13) Years ago (on 1996). Since some inside the Committee reportedly claimed that this would provide to the CoE "more Visibility" to the Media.

- But, "Mr. Van den Brande, in addition of being President of EPP Group of MEPs at CoE's Assembly, also served as the equivalent of a Prime Minister ("Minister-President") of Flanders, which is a federated entity in Belgium, as f.ex. the Prime Minister of Bavaria, in Germany, or the Prime Minister of Quebec, in Canada, replied to the Ambassadors' claims the experienced former CoE Assembly's President, Dutch MEP Rene van der Linden,

- "The Committee doesn't want to elect as CoE's SG any MEP no more", regretted, smiling, to "EuroFora", the famous Swish MEP Dick Marty, former CoE Rapporteur on  CIA Flights, "Secret Detentions", etc., ...who notoriously has a better Press coverage in CNN and other big mainstream Media worldwide,  than many Prime Ministers, showing the absurdity of the "visibility" claim..

At any case, the resulting deadlock worries CoE's Officials, to the point that a High-standing CoE Director told "EuroFora" that, - "We like Visibility, but we need, most of all, for the organisation to work regularly and efficiently"...
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    - On this occasion, speaking also as CoE Assembly's Rapporteur on ECHR Judgements' execution, Pourgourides strongly denounced, moreover, the fact that :  "One of the .. severe clashes between the Parliamentary Assembly and the Committee of Ministers has to do with the execution of (ECHR's) Judgements"

    -  "We insist, in the Assembly, that the Judgements of the Court must be executed promptly, without delay, and effectively".

    - But, "the Committee of Ministers follows a differend procedure. It allows Countries and Governments against whom the Court has decided in its Judgements, Years and Years and Years to go by, without implementing the Court's judgements !"

- "And here, we have always been in severe clash : As for the Assembly insisting that judgements must be executed promptly, otherwise they become meaningless. And the Committee of Ministers ...trying to give more Time, and more Time, to Governments for execution. And we have always been at the throat of eachother" for ECHR's judgements respect.

    The experienced Pourgourides denounced also another "severe clash" on which CoE's Ambassadors "had differend approaches" with CoE's MEPs : "A considerable number of Ministers do not like the way we (CoE's Assembly) select the Judges" for ECHR. On many occasions, we, as Parliamentary Assembly, said to Governments : "The list of 3 judges you have sent us for Selection is inappropriate". Because it "does not contain 3 exceptionally good candidates. Therefore, we are sending you the List back.. Because there is work to manipulate things and promote some candidates they want. Often, ..the Governments ..are ..selecting 1 good judge, whom they want to become a (European) judge. And 2 totally useless candidates. ..In effect, asking us, to add the ...rumber-stamp..  But we (Assembly) never accepted that. We always send the list back. Saying to them : "We want 3 good candidates. Otherwise, we'll not examine the list".

    - "I don't think that the Governments are doing that on purpose .. But the end result of the whole affair, is, (that) they are undemining all the CoE. Because (it) will remain without a SG. The post is ...very important ..for the proper functioning of the European organization. And moreover, the credibility of the organisation is stained considerably, if there is a clash between 2 of its vital organs : Assembly and Committee of Ministers". On the contrary, "there should be close cooperation ... to promote Democracy, Human Rights and Rule of Law". "Without close cooperation ...there cannot be effective promotion of Democracy, Rule of Law and Human Rights", he concluded.
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    This was backed,  later in Strasbourg, by a similar Criticism from the famous International NGO "Human Rights Watch"'s Director for Europe, Holly Cartner, in reply to an "EuroFora" question,  revealing also that CoE's Committee of Ministers' Deputies abused of "Double Standards", being f.ex. more critical against Russia, than vis-a-vis Turkey... :

- "It needs to be a much clearer and much more forceful message coming from the Committee of Ministers", the Human Rights Watch's Director stressed from the outset.

But, on the contrary,  the Committee seems to apply "Double standards", she agreed  with "EuroFora"'s question :

 - "My understanding is that the Committee of Ministers is being clearly more forceful on the Tchechnyan judgements (against Russia), than it was in judgements on Turkey !", denounced Cartner.

-  "So we need to do a lot more work in terms of Pressure ...on the Institution (CoE's Committee of Ministers), to make sure that it's not the case...", she concluded.

Because "It's an essential work for all of us, (a) Priority,  to make sure that there is ...individual and general Measures who truly bring about Accountability and Changes to the system in the Countries where Abuses occured, so that these Abuses are not repeating themselves over and over again"

- "That's the only way that you are going to reduce the workload of the European Court, which is, at this point, actually working at very similar abuses, over and over and over again. And the payments are made, and the abuses remain the same", HRW denounced.
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    Another criticism came from German mainstream MEP Holger Haibach, CoE Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, in reply to an "EuroFora" question on the Committee of Ministers' eagerness to push Ukraine for more investigations on Journalist Gongadze's murder, even after it found and jailed 2 perpetrators, while, on the contrary, it remains silent on Turkey's total failure to investigate dissident Turkish Cypriot Journalist Adali's murder, despite the fact that ECHR has published Judgements on both cases, condeming Ukraine and Turkey alike,  since 2005 :

- "The question is what use is made of the Judgements of the European Court : All of us must try to treat all cases Equally. If there is a Judgement, and it says that there is a breach of Human Rights, then, we have to follow it, irrespective of the country or the region", replied the German MEP.

- "But, if I look at what gets in (CoE's Committee of Ministers) and what gets out, ... it has been Political skid !".. , criticized CoE's Rapporteur, comparing ECHR's judgements, with CoE Committee of Ministers' decisions...

- "So, the question is to find a way to raise Public Awareness", added Haibach.

    Meanwhile, CoE's Assembly voted a call upon CoE's Ministerial Committee, which has the Duty to supervise the execution of ECHR's judgements, to "apply the Same Rules to All States, without Double Standards".

    - "The Full and Speedy Execution of ECHR's Judgements in cases of Impunity is the Key to fighting this Scourge", stressed CoE Resolution, which also underlines that "there is a Continuing Obligation to conduct Effective Investigations", and that  "the application of these Same Rules to all States, without Double Standards, is of particular importance".
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Things might be linked, since, among the 4 nominated candidates for the post of CoE's new SG, Van Den Brande, speaking to "EuroFora", admitted that "unless we (CoE) act for ECHR's judgements to be respected, it will be a vicious circle, since similar violations risk to be continued to be committed, multiplying the number of cases brought to the ECHR, aggravating its overload". While Eorsi has even advanced a proposal to give to ECHR's judgements an "erga omnes" legal power.

On the contrary, Jagland appeared to focus mainly on "filtering" individual applications and "managing" efficiently their flow. While Cimoszewicz even went as far as to claim that, "CoE being an InterGovernemental organization, according to International Law, it has no means to impose to its Member States what they should do".
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Attempts to weaken critical CoE Assembly and ECHR, (shortly before Turkey takes over) ?
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Some Committee members openly speculated to reverse the 98 - 90 majority in CoE's Assembly which voted against electing a SG in such conditions. But an experienced CoE Official topically reminded to "EuroFora" that, ...History teaches that "even the instauration of the Republic in France was done with just one vote difference".. And several MEPs or diplomats observed that a serious analysis indicated that, when many MEPs who were exceptionally absent on June 22, will be anew present on September, the Majority of critical MEPs should be much larger..

    At any case, attempts to weaken CoE's Parliamentary Assembly and/or ECHR are naturally worrying people in Strasbourg, particularly because they emerged shortly before .. Turkey takes over the Committee of Ministers Deputies' Chair, Next Year (November 2010), and particularly since Ankara started to participate in the Committee's "Bureau" (May 2009).

    It would certainly be damaging for the credibility of CoE, the Human Rights and Democracy organization, if it gave the impression that it might downgrade its Free-speaking, critical and pluralist Parliamentary Assembly, and even its core-body : the European Court of Human Rights, just before the rotating chairmanship of its Committee of Ministers is taken by Turkey, who is notoriously the State the most condemned for grave Violations of Human rights and Democratic Rules ..

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    The next crucial meeting scheduled between CoE's Committee of Ministers and CoE Assembly on Monday, July 13, comes only one day before new EU Parliament's session in Strasbourg (14 to 16 July), and this fact might give a possibility to break the deadlock.

    But CoE's meeting is restricted only to the Bureau of the Committee (composed of only 7 members out of ..47 CoE member States) and to the Assembly Groups' Presidents. It also takes place away from Strasbourg, in Paris, behind closed doors...

    But rumours (cited even by some CoE Officials) have been circulating recently, that the Polish  candidate, Cimoszewicz, depite his strong stance, might, eventually offer to wihdraw if his compatriot, Polish MEP Buzek, is elected as new EU Parliament's President in a vote scheduled in Strasbourg for July 14.

The -unconfirmed yet- move might provide a simplified opportunity for both CoE's bodies to save their face, by simply agreeing to substitute a withdrawing candidate by another one among the 4 nominated, (i.e. Van Der Brande).

    But, even if it's confirmed, such a manouver would again leave a bitter feeling to many that simply Democracy did not work according to CoE's own principles...

    Because, as the outgoing CoE SG, Terry Davis (Brittish socialist MEP : himself a former CoE Assembly), underlined, "there are 4 nominated candidates"...