Strasbourg, 26/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday at the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, the Secretary of State for European Affairs in Portugal Fernando Neves, presented the Portuguese presidency's programme for the next six months. He highlighted the implementation of the decision taken at the Warsaw Summit a week ago (EUROPE 8948). Portugal's priorities will be based on three main points:
1.Promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law: in this chapter, the Portuguese presidency will highlight ratification of Protocol 14 of the European Convention of human rights in the hope that it will enter into force before May 2006; it will seek to strengthen the role of the Commission for Human Rights and will strive to consolidate the results already accomplished: child protection rights; sexual equality, local democracy and the fight against the trafficking in human beings; in the spirit of the Warsaw Declaration, it will also seek to strengthen cooperation with the European Union, OSCE and United Nations.
2. Recognition of the Cultural Dimension as a way of reinforcing democratic values: Portugal will place more emphasis on the cultural dimension of the Organisation's activities in the context of the 50th anniversary of the European Cultural Convention; it will work towards the strengthening of cultural ties between the two sides of the Mediterranean including the possibility of exploring the expansion of the geographical scope for Convention supervised cooperation; it will encourage reflection on how to take action against the deep roots of terrorism.
3. Consolidation of social cohesion: Member States which have not yet ratified the European Social Charter and its revised version will be encouraged to do so, particular attention will focus on family and child related issues.
The Portuguese presidency will also organise different seminars and conferences on the following themes: child protection rights, particularly against trafficking and violence (Lisbon, June 2005) - balanced participation of women and men in economic and political decision-making (Lisbon, June 2005); local autonomy (Lisbon, July 2005) on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the European Charter of Local Autonomy; economic delinquency (Lisbon, September 2005); the future of European cultural cooperation (Algarve, October 2005) with a ministerial conference marking the close of the 50th anniversary of the European Cultural Convention.