John Bruton
Question:1 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Taoiseach his views on the proposals of the French President that there should be meetings of the 27 Heads of State and Government, of the Council of Europe every two years.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Council of Europe Meetings.
In an address to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 4 May last, President Mitterrand proposed that biennial meetings should be held of the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe, to alternate with the Summit meetings of the CSCE. It has now been decided to hold a Council of Europe Summit on 8-9 October 1993. The Summit will take place in Vienna, as Austria will at that time hold the Council of Europe's Presidency. It is my intention to attend the Summit.
I welcome the French President's initiative for a Council of Europe Summit. With the disappearance of the Communist bloc, enormous changes have taken place in the political landscape of Europe. It is, therefore, appropriate that European organisations should re-examine their roles and consider how best they can contribute to the creation of stability in the new Europe that has emerged from the end of the Cold War. The Council of Europe has a significant part to play in this regard. It has the important task of assisting the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe to develop their democratic infrastructures and to integrate into Europe's wide network of governmental and parliamentary co-operation.
Already Hungary, the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, Poland and Bulgaria have been admitted as full members of the Council of Europe and applications from a number of other Central and Eastern European countries are under consideration. Next year's Vienna Summit is intended to give the necessary political direction to the Council and to assist it in making its contribution, along with other European organisations, to the task of helping the new European democracies become an effective part of the peaceful and productive pattern of European co-operation.
However, I am strongly of the view that for the Summit to be successful it will have to be very carefully planned and prepared. Over the coming months we will be co-operating with other members of the Council of Europe to ensure this. Finally, I believe that the question of holding further meetings of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe can best be decided following the outcome of next year's Vienna Summit.
Would the Taoiseach agree that, within the European Community there is a constant, ongoing conflict between the needs of widening the Community and deepening it and that one way of avoiding that conflict would be by giving an enhanced role to the Council of Europe? Would he agree also that if the Council of Europe is to become an effective body there needs to be a change to the treaty establishing it to prevent the situation continuing whereby an individual member state of the 27 can block a convention from coming into operation, even though it has agreed to the convention?
I agree that there is a need not alone to widen but to deepen the European Community. The appropriate expert groups within the Council of Europe have been examining for some time ways of streamlining the supervisory mechanism of the European Convention on Human Rights. It is desirable that the Community should be widened and deepened. There are applications to be dealt with shortly relating to enlargement to include some of the EFTA countries and other countries.
Would the Taoiseach agree that if the Council of Europe is to become an effective body the treaties which have governed it since 1949 need to be amended?
Certainly it is an aspect that will have to be examined as we look at the number of states which want to become members.