AZERBAIJANI MP BECOMES PACE VICE-PRESIDENT
At the opening of its winter session in Strasbourg, January 21, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) elected Mr. Lluís Maria de Puig (Spain, SOC) its new President.
A historian and politician, Mr. de Puig has been a member of PACE since Spain joined the Council of Europe in 1983. In that time, he has served as Vice-President of PACE (1993-1996), Chair of the Spanish delegation (1993-1997 and since 2004), Chair of the Committee on Culture, Science and Education (2002-2005) and Chair of the Socialist Group since 2004.
Active in the clandestine opposition to the Franco regime, he later, as leader of the Socialist Party and, from 1979, Member of Parliament helped Spain to make the transition to democracy. A member of the Cortes until 2004, he was elected Senator for Gerona in 2004.
Born in Bascara on 29 July 1945, he is married and the father of two children.
Mr. de Puig succeeds René van der Linden (Netherlands, EPP/CD) as the Assembly’s 24th President since it was established in 1949. He is the third Spaniard to hold the office.
There had been only one candidate. Under the Assembly’s new Rules of Procedure, the President’s one-year term of office may be renewed once.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today elected its Vice-Presidents as well.
Head of Azerbaijani delegation to the Council of Europe Parliament Assembly (PACE), chairman of Azerbaijan’s Milli Majlis (Parliament) standing commission for international and Inter-parliamentary ties Samad Seyidov has been unanimously elected one of the PACE Vice-Presidents.
Within the winter session on January 21-25, deputies will discuss some issues, including election of judges for the European Court of Human Rights, protection of environment in Arctic region, black list of the United Nations and the Council of Europe, situation in Central Asian countries, the Council of Europe and observer countries and etc.
The issue on Azerbaijan was not included into the agenda of the winter session.
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