session - AP president
Strasbourg, 01.10.2012 - In his opening address at the 4th session of the PACE, Jean-Claude Mignon, President, called for ‘dialogue with our Russian friends and colleagues’. “I hope that we shall soon have another opportunity to hold an exchange of views with Mr Naryshkin, President of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, who has unfortunately cancelled his trip to Strasbourg during this part-session,” said the President of the PACE.
The tensions surrounding the report made him uneasy for they had no foundation. “We hold our debates according to the principles of dialogue and mutual respect, treating all participants on an equal footing and applying no double standards. The debate on the monitoring report provides the opportunity to make a political assessment of Russia's participation in the work of the Council of Europe, while together identifying tangible means of further reinforcing our co-operation, including on issues that are still causing debate,” he said. (more...)