Brussels, 18/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, after the 3rd Summit of the Council of Europe, Poland passed the baton over to Portugal, that is to hold the six-monthly rotating presidency of the organisation until November. Romania will then take over for six months, before the Federation of Russia has its turn to hold the reins from May to November 2006.
On Tuesday, in Warsaw, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested another European summit should be convened to resolve problems of a “global dimension”. He especially mentioned protection of the environment, the conquest of space, new technologies and terrorism. “We consider that the Council of Europe should be the initiator and the organiser of a European Summit that would be organised very carefully, with full participation by all European organisation and institutions”, the Russian foreign minister said. The Polish president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, found the suggestion “interesting”. Speaking before the press he said: “I consider that the Warsaw Summit is an interesting contribution to the debate on a summit by three organisations - the EU, the Council of Europe and the OSCE - which could be held in Moscow”.