Strasbourg, 27/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - On 29 January, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will be examining the report of Greek Socialist Theodoros Pangalos on the contribution of the Council of Europe on the work of the European Convention. This report formulates several recommendations beginning with the preliminary outline of the Constitutional treaty that the Presidium presented on 28 October 2002. It calls for the integration of the Charter of Fundamental Rights into the European Convention of Human Rights, with the right of appeal for citizens at the Court (based in Strasbourg). It makes references to 1) the amended European Social Charter, 2) the Convention on the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment, 3) the Charter for Local Autonomy, 4) The European Cultural Convention, 5) the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, 6) the European Charter on Regional and Minority Languages, 7) the Convention on Human Rights and Bio-Medicine. The report calls on the EU to think about redefinition of the notion of EU citizenship basing it on criteria other than nationality. The rapporteur believes that this could involve establishing citizenship for those who have regular residency, as a cornerstone, which would allow the profound originality of the Community process to be increased as well as orientating the Union's peoples toward an autonomous concept that is in keeping with the Community's legal system.
In connection with Title 9 of the preliminary outline of the Constitutional treaty, "The Union and its Close Environment", the report considers that the Convention should afford priority to the full use of the Council of Europe, rather than proposing the implementation of new structures or other institutional arrangements that would duplicate jobs and waste resources. The report proposes extending the field of application for Article 303 (co-operation between the Community and the Council of Europe) to all issues within the competencies of the EU.