SECRETARY GENERAL

Mr Thorbjørn Jagland is the 13th Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The Secretary General has the overall responsibility for the strategic management of the Organisation. Mr Jagland was elected in September 2009. 

The former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Norway, Thorbjørn Jagland, aged 62, was also the President of the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) and the leader of the Norwegian Labour Party. He is currently the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

Focus

Secretary General Jagland meets Russian President Putin

Russian Federation,  20 May 2013, On 20 May 2013, Secretary General Jagland met Russian President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov in the Russian city of Sochi, the host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics. An immediate outcome of the talks was an agreement to transform the existing Council of Europe presence to a programme office to support the administration of Council of Europe programmes in Russia. In addition, a more broad-based cooperation, covering several...

News

Secretary General meets new Chief Ombudsman of Turkey

Strasbourg,  14 May 2013, Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland today met in the Strasbourg headquarters of the Council of Europe, the Chief Ombudsman of Turkey, Mehmet Nihat Ömeroğlu, who was appointed to this post in November 2012. The Ombudsman institution in Turkey has...

Council of Europe on terrorist attack in Turkey

Strasbourg,  13 May 2013, Following the car bombings which caused the death of over forty persons in the Turkish city of Reyhanlı, near the Syrian border, Thorbjørn Jagland sent a message of condolences to Turkish authorities and people, in which he assured them of the...

Secretary General Jagland on World Press Freedom Day: "European governments must guarantee media freedom as an essential condition for democracy"

Strasbourg,  30 April 2013, Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland has urged governments to fully respect the right to freedom of expression and to a free press. He warned that journalists still face oppression and censorship in parts of Europe today. "True...