Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear friends,

It is my great pleasure to be here with you today at the close of what has been a very successful 2010 Lisbon Forum. Once again this beautiful city has hosted a platform for intercultural dialogue that continues to enrich our understanding of different religions, cultures and customs in Europe and beyond.

Such dialogue continues to bear great importance in the effort to promote global interdependence and policies of solidarity within the realm of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

My country’s current Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, as a contribution to the Council of Europe’s fundamental values, chose to focus on fostering integration while respecting diversity as one of its priorities. We were therefore delighted to host the 2010 Exchange of the Council of Europe on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue in Ohrid in September. This city was also host to the Second World Conference on Dialogue among Religions and Civilisations, organized in May 2010 by the Macedonian Government, so the Exchange of the Council of Europe was an opportunity to present the conclusions reached at this Conference providing an additional link between the global and the regional perspectives on some issues of the intercultural dialogue.
2010 Exchange of the Council of Europe brought together experts, academics, members of the media, religious leaders and representatives of non-religious convictions from all over Europe to exchange views on the role of the media in fostering intercultural dialogue, tolerance and mutual understanding, as well as on freedom of expression of the media and respect towards cultural and religious diversity.

It comes as little surprise, therefore, that we particularly welcome the chosen theme of this year’s Forum – “Freedom of expression, conscience and religion”.

Dear colleagues, these freedoms that have been discussed here in Lisbon over the last two days are absolutely fundamental in a democratic society and, as such, must be upheld. Yes, they are protected under Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 9 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights but as we have seen, ensuring respect for these rights, and indeed other rights, calls for constant vigilance and attention, particularly in the face of new and changing situations.

With this same reasoning, the Macedonian Chairmanship and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe took the joint initiative of organising a high level meeting in Strasbourg last month on the Roma population in Europe. Proposed in light of recent public concern about Roma rights, this meeting brought together representatives from Council of Europe member states, the EU, and the Roma community in the hope that it would lead to measures being taken to ensure the social integration of the Roma. All representatives unanimously condemned the widespread discrimination against Roma and their social and economic marginalisation, and, by adopting the “Strasbourg Declaration”, member states agreed to a pan-European response. My country strongly hopes that rapid progress will now be made in the implementation of the Strasbourg Declaration.

Allow me to say a few more words regarding our Chairmanship’s priorities and action. The last six months have been very full ones, during which we have worked towards furthering the core goals of the Council of Europe. In addition to fostering integration and diversity, the priorities that we identified have focused on strengthening human rights protection and promoting youth participation.

Macedonian Chairmanship coincided with the 60th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights, which is a unique and highly regarded Council of Europe legal instrument. In this context, the objective we had set ourselves was to contribute actively and as effectively as possible to the post-Interlaken process – I am referring here to the Conference organised by the Swiss Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers, in February 2010, on the future of the European Court of Human Rights.

We therefore organised at the beginning of October in Skopje a conference on the issue “Strengthening subsidiarity: integrating the Court’s case law into national law and practice”. The conclusions from this conference will be presented at the next High Level Conference on the Future of the Court, to be held in Izmir in 2011 during the Turkish chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers. I am particularly glad that the event in Skopje has provided a bridge between Interlaken and the Izmir conferences, enabling substantial discussion on the ways and means of how to improve the implementation and enforcement by national authorities of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Convention.

Finally, I would refer to our third priority which is to promote youth participation. The youth of today are the citizens and policy makers of tomorrow. It is therefore essential to harness the enthusiasm and idealism of our young people and encourage them to engage in the political, social and economic life. It is equally important to train and educate young people in the value of multiculturalism. In this regard, it was wonderful to see a youth gathering take place in Ohrid in September that aimed to identify ways of promoting effective youth participation in democratic and decision-making processes at local, national and regional levels in south-east Europe. At this gathering, the participants adopted the “Ohrid Process Declaration on Youth and Decision-Making: Towards Greater Inclusion and Ownership”, a clear initiative to further the democratic development of the region through greater youth inclusion.

In the next few days, the Macedonian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers is due to come to an end. It has been an eventful 6 months and I hope that I am correct in my belief that our priorities as well as the events we organised in our country have contributed to the core objectives of the Council of Europe. My country warmly welcomes the successive Chairmanships of the Committee of Ministers and we look forward to working with them in continuing the important work of the Organisation.

Thank you for your attention.