Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers

Armenia hands over chairmanship to Austria

Strasbourg, 14.11.2013 - The Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe passed from Armenia to Austria today, at a meeting at the Organisation's Strasbourg headquarters, attended by representatives of its 47 member States.

Before handing over the chairmanship to his successor, the outgoing Chair Edward Nalbandian, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Armenia, gave an overview of his country's achievements during its chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers.

The new Chair of the Committee of Ministers, Michael Spindelegger, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Austria, presented the priorities of the Austrian chairmanship which will run for six months as of today.

At a brief ceremony during the meeting, Minister Spindelegger solemnly handed over to the Secretary General, Thorbjørn Jagland, the instrument of Austria's ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, known as the Istanbul Convention (CETS no. 210). Austria pledged that, during its chairmanship, it would "promote measures for an early entry into force of the Convention", which requires 10 ratifications. (more...)

- File on the Austrian Chairmanship
- Photo gallery

Back 21.06.2013 - Conference on Participatory Democracy at Local Level in Yerevan

21.06.13 - ''The issue of participation is included in the priorities of the Congress for 2013-2016 and we reaffirm our conviction that the quality of democracy depends on citizen participation in democratic processes,'' underlined Herwig Van Staa, President of the Congress on 19 June 2013 during the Conference on Participatory Democracy at local level, held in Yerevan.

The conference was organised under the Armenian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in close co-operation with the Congress. It addressed in particular the current situation in member states, the role of participatory democracy in improving the efficiency of local authorities and the ways of strengthening participatory democracy at local level. "When defining the priorities for the Armenian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, we specifically highlighted the local democracy area, since local democracy is the principal component for the democratic development of society. We will continue to pay attention to the issue of raising the level of citizen participation in the decision-making processes with regard to issues of local and regional concern, stated Mr. Armen Gevorgyan, Vice Prime Minister and the Minister of Territorial Administration of Armenia, reading out the welcoming address of the President of the Republic, Mr. Serzh Sargsyan.

Press release - conclusions
Conference announcement
Documents and speeches of the Conference
Photo gallery