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PACE turns 60
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) charged with the dual mission of strengthening democracy in Europe and upholding its citizen’s fundamental rights celebrated its 60th birthday on 10 August.
Sixty years ago, 100 members of parliament from twelve European countries – including some of the great founding fathers of the European movement – gathered in the main lecture theatre of the University of Strasbourg for the first ever meeting of the “Consultative Assembly” (soon to become the Parliamentary Assembly) of the Council of Europe, the organisation which had been signed into existence in London only three months earlier to “forge closer ties” among its ten founding nations.
In his speech PACE president, Lluís Maria de Puig said, “I am among those who consider the Organisation’s record after sixty years as very positive. At a time of budgetary austerity we can say that the Council of Europe represents ‘good value for money’ for its Member States. It has successfully conducted a highly ambitious political project, bringing together under the same roof, around the same values, all the countries of a continent with a wide range of histories, cultures, languages and traditions.” He however concluded that, “the work of the Council of Europe and its Assembly as the ‘conscience of Europe’ is far from over”.
PACE launched a special commemorative website to mark the occasion. The website features pictures, historically significant speeches and interesting facts about the “conscience of Europe”.
http://assembly.coe.int/Conferences/2009Anniversaire49/default_EN.asp
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