Strasbourg, 30/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - Jean-Claude Mignon, the first French president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for 23 years and a UMP parliamentarian for the Seine-et-Marne region in France, demonstrated a certain optimism and determination in the first Parliamentary Assembly session of 2012. With his election and noticeable investiture speech, a real landmark has been reached for this member of the European People's Party (EPP, centre-right), who has had a seat at Strasbourg since 1993. This is certainly commitment, but not the only one because he has very much decided to forge ahead and give the Council of Europe back its former power after “2000 lean years”, followed by “a decade marked by integration and support along the way to democracy, still ongoing, for countries from the former Soviet bloc”.
Forty-seven member states counting a total of around 800 million Europeans who are represented by 321 parliamentarians and 321 alternates, “can't be ignored,” Mignon said, and “it is time that we found the meaning of the political message again”. Although he is pleased that the British prime minister, David Cameron, came to Strasbourg during this session and discussed the future of the European Court of Human Rights, Mignon will not be content with well-known guests to get the Council of Europe back in the limelight again. Now is the time for “an offensive” with “a new partnership with the European Union” in their sights. A meeting has already been requested for this with Martin Schulz, the new president of the European Parliament; contacts will be made with the chairs of the political groups and with the Commission through the intermediary of (his friend) Michel Barnier, who is himself French and a member of the UMP. “The European Union is ignoring us and this has to stop.”
Jean-Claude Mignon is ready to grasp his pilgrim's staff for Brussels, Paris and Strasbourg and also seeks to get to the heart of “frozen conflicts”, which from his point of view are very “heated ones”, and which still poison the European continent. Nagorno Karabakh, South Ossetia, Transnistria - he will go everywhere “with objectives defined by the Bureau”, firm determination and plain speaking. “With regard to Transnistria”, he said, “I'm very hopeful that a solution can be found soon because the different parties have shown both intelligence and goodwill.” He said that the situation in Hungary and in Russia was worrying him and that they had to watch out: “these countries are members of our 'family' and we have to be able to say to each other what is good or bad but this does not mean that we need to quarrel about it.”
More broadly speaking, Mignon wants to get the voice of the Council of Europe heard on the international scene, which has been upset by the Arab Spring, an event that he regards as being of equivalent importance to the fall of the Berlin Wall. He pointed out that “it is particularly important that we discuss Syria and the situation in the Middle East, particularly because Israel and the Palestinian Authority participate in our debates, one as an observer country and the other as a partner for democracy”. To go forward, Mignon is making a heart-felt appeal for a new Council of Europe summit. The most recent was in 2005, in Warsaw. To obtain this, he needs the approval of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, a body with which he would like to get out of a paralysing relationship of conflict. This is another prospective field for a man who, in all enthusiasm after his fresh election, is advocating a “culture of results”. We will have to wait and see … (VL/transl.fl)