Excellences,

Ladies and gentlemen,


As a Chairman of the Committee of Ministers it is my great honor to present you the Macedonian priorities that we will pursue during the following six months.
Figuratively speaking each chairmanship tends to be a bridge between former and succeeding Chairmanships. And as bridges connect two sides, provide communication between two banks of a river, chairmanships are obliged to secure smooth functioning of the Committee of Ministers by providing a logical continuity in the activities of the decision-making organ of the Council of Europe.
And as bridges are symbol of connecting people and making stronger ties, our organization has contributed also to building greater unity between peoples. Ever since its foundation the Council of Europe remains the leading force for integration on the European continent. It deserves to be described as the “Common European Home”, since the Council of Europe provides protection for the human rights of more than 800 million Europeans.
It is coincidental that our Chairmanship falls in the year marking the 60th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights. That has inspired us to draft our Chairmanship’s priorities starting from this most unique and recognizable legal instrument of the Council of Europe, which has influenced the development of the organizations’ legal apparatus. The need to strengthen the human rights protection is particularly relevant for these challenging times when economies suffer and European citizens are faced with decline in the standard of living.
This is the time when we have to rethink and reinforce the system of human rights protection at national level and at the level of the Organisation. We have to make the best use of the existing resources and monitoring mechanisms in order to make a maximum effect. That’s why an emphasis for a cooperative approach has been made in our priorities, an approach that can be beneficial for the national authorities but also for the Organization itself, especially in light of the reform process initiated by the Secretary General.
Another reform which is strongly needed, referred to in our priorities, is the reform of the European Court of Human Rights. The Interlaken process has set up deadlines for actions to be undertaken by State Parties, the Court and the Committee of Ministers for an effective implementation of the Interlaken Declaration and Action Plan.
As our contribution towards the Interlaken process, the Macedonian Ministry of Justice will organize a conference on the topic “Strengthening subsidiarity: integrating the Court’s case-law in the national law and practice” in November 2010. Participants from all the member-states of the Council of Europe will be invited to take part in this event and contribute towards a productive discussion on this very important issue related to the reform of the European Human Rights Court. Let me remind you that ensuring the continued effectiveness of the European Human Rights Convention, strengthening the principle of subsidiarity by fully integrating the Convention into national legal systems in order to secure its direct application, as well as the Court’s case-law, are the decision we have adopted at this Ministerial session.

Our second priority focuses on the multiculturalism in Europe and the effort to achieve more integrated and cohesive societies, while respecting all types of diversities that exist in our societies (cultural, ethnic, linguistic, etc.). While the Council of Europe has set standards in this area, in parallel we need to learn more from the ever-changing reality in Europe. In our action we should not be bound exclusively by the legal framework of the Organisation that is at our disposal because relying only on the legalistic approach could not provide answers to the raising challenges of the political realities in our countries. Neither is it in consistency with the greater political role the Council of Europe wants to play in todays and future Europe. The combination of both approaches is a recipe for a successful coping with the new challenges and, here, the expert monitoring mechanisms of the Organization play significant role.
We hope that this idea of cooperation, synergy and complementarities within the Organization and with other international partners will be promoted too at the Conference organized by the Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 7-8 June in Skopje on “Strengthening the cohesion of European societies: effective participation of persons belonging to national minorities in the decision-making process”. The reason to invite State Parties and those who are not Parties to the Framework Convention on National Minorities to this Conference is to learn more from each other on how to have better integrative policies.

There are some opinions that the Council of Europe needs to rejuvenate. Departing from this thought, one of the Macedonian priorities promotes youth participation in the region of South East Europe. We consider this initiative important since it brings a new opportunity for young people in South East Europe to break with the turbulent past and to build their stronger ties. The concept of the process, to be launched in Ohrid on 10-11 September, is aimed at providing an organized setting for exchange of views of young people, which could further foster their participation in the political processes and democratic reforms in their respective countries. It has been conceptualised to offer shared ownership by all the countries of South East Europe ensuring thus their interest in participating. This initiative comes at a time when the Region is taking new and progressive course in shaping its future based on the Council of Europe standards. Let us hope that the enthusiasm and the energy of young people will spread all over the Region and will transform it into prosperous South East Europe. I call on the countries from the Region to embrace this process and to support it as actively as possible. Here, we will need the support of other countries beyond our Region to share with us their experiences and to help us sustain the process.


I sincerely hope that we’ll be able to bring our specific contribution to the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers and to communicate our political messages which bear the national and regional stamp. I am particularly glad that our priorities fit well into the reform process initiated by the Secretary General Jagland, the success of which should be our joint endeavour.

Thank you.