WARSAW (AA) - The Council of Europe (COE) Heads of State and Government Summit has started at the historical Royal Castle in Polish capital of Warsaw today (Monday).
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is representing Turkey at the summit which is attended by heads of state and government of 46 COE member states.
Role of the Council within the new European environment, and consolidation of the European Court of Human Rights are the important topics to be discussed at the summit.
After the opening remarks of Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, a plenary session on ''European unity-European values'' has started.
In this session, leaders will reiterate their commitments to common values and principles of the COE including human rights, democracy and state of law and confirm their decisiveness to maintain the European Convention on Human Rights, the most important human rights protection mechanism.
In the afternoon plenary session on ''Challenges for the European Society'', participants will revise measures against terrorism, organized crime, bribery and human trafficking which threaten security and safety of European citizens.
Also, three new European conventions including the convention on the prevention of terrorism, the convention on laundering, search, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism, and the convention on action against human smuggling, will be opened for signature by COE member states.
On the second day of the summit, a third plenary session on ''European Architecture'' will be held in which cooperation of the COE with European organization, particularly the European Union (EU) will be debated.
At the end of the summit, a political declaration and an action plan will be signed.
(BRC-MS)
2005-05-16