Brussels, 10/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On 10 October, European and World Day against the Death Penalty, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland urged all European states that have not yet abolished the death penalty to do so by ratifying the protocols to the European Convention on Human Rights on this subject. They asked Belarus - the last European country to carry out executions - to introduce an immediate moratorium on applying the death penalty, with a view to its total abolition. Welcoming the global abolitionist trend but expressing concern at the strong increase in executions in the countries that still practise it, Ashton and Jagland called on these countries to declare a moratorium on the executions immediately - the “first step towards abolition”. President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz said that no matter how heinous a crime can be, “it cannot be put right with another death”. He also welcomed “the continuing growth in the strength of the abolition movement”, saying that two thirds of the world's countries have now abolished the death penalty. (CG/transl.fl)