Vilnius, 07/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - Luxembourg will hold the Presidency of the Council of Europe for the next months with a programme focussing on the development of a common European areas of law and respect of the person. At the Committee of Ministers' meeting in Vilnius on 3 May, the Luxembourg foreign minister Lydie Polfer aid that the Presidency would be attaching particular importance to reforming the European Court of Human Rights. Alongside work to redesign the concept and improve the structure in the medium term, the Presidency plans to launch reflection on the future of the European Convention of Human Rights in connection with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. In Luxembourg on 17 September 2002 it will be holding a symposium attended by judges of the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights (on a personal and individual level). Another conference will be held in Luxembourg on 30 September and 1 October on press freedom in Europe.
Other priorities mentioned by Ms Polfer include strengthening co-operation with other regional and international organisations, particularly the European Union. She wants to examine how best to cooperate in the fields of education, culture, youth, sport and the environment. She will be organising a European conference in Mondorf-les-Bains (Luxembourg) on 17/19 October on promoting the portfolio of languages from the joint Council of Europe/European Commission project.
Lydie Polfer said that the Luxembourg Presidency would be bearing politically delicate issues in various Member States and candidate countries in mind, quoting the Balkans, the Ukraine, Moldovia, White Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Chechnya. She announced that a European conference on the responsibility of mayors and local authorities with regard to terrorism would be held in Luxembourg on 21 September.