This Friday morning, the Standing Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) held a video conference with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO). He stressed the “critical role” of parliaments in the management of the Covid-19 pandemic and proposed a partnership to PACE based on a 'structured dialogue' between the two institutions. The aim would be to discuss health issues in a long-term perspective with a high-level platform of elected representatives from 47 European States.
“We will examine your proposal”, replied PACE President Rik Daems of Belgium, announcing that he, for his part, was in favour of it. As a basis for this structured dialogue, he proposed to communicate the conclusions of the five 'Covid-19' reports being prepared by the Assembly to WHO. Texts which Rik Daems hopes will also be taken into account in the Ministerial Declaration to be issued in Athens in November. This will mark the end of the Greek Presidency of the Committee of Ministers, whose priorities have been disrupted by the health crisis, as Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, Greek Minister for European Affairs pointed out, at the opening of the meeting. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)