Council of Europe

Mykola Gnatovskyy, President of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), has argued that police brutality constitutes a systemic problem in Bulgaria.

Several thousand refugees tried to enter Hungary illegally over the past few days, but they were stopped, Zarko Obradovic said in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

Obradovic heads Serbian parliament's permanent delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks has criticized Hungary's plans to build a fence along the border with Serbia.

"Hungary’s plan to build a fence to stop migrants is ill-advised. Focus should be on ensuring access to asylum, not impeding it," Muiznieks wrote on his Twitter account.

Romania's Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu will be paying a working visit to the Council of Europe's (CoE) headquarters in Strasbourg, May 27-28.

Photo credit: (c) ALEX MICSIK / AGERPRES STREAM

Ministers from 47 European nations agreed for the first time May 19 to harmonise their laws to stop so-called foreign fighters travelling to Iraq and Syria to join jihadist groups.

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev is due to attend the Annual Forum of Local Authorities of Southeast Europe as the event is entering into its third day.

The forum, which is organized by the Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe (NALAS) and the City of Plovdiv, kicked off Saturday.

Bulgaria has a reasonably good legislative framework and many institutions and tools to deter corruption, yet there have been no people convicted of high-level corruption, according to a report of the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption (GRECO).

Social Democratic Party (PSD) Senator Titus Corlatean on Friday, at the invitation of the Chairmanship in office of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, will participate in the high level conference organised in Brussels on the topic "Tolerance trumps hate," informs a press release remitted to AGERPRES on Thursday.

Photo credit: (c) ALEX TUDOR / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

BELGRADE - A three-day regional conference on the monitoring of EU guidelines for the support to civil society organizations (CSOs), which started in Belgrade on Tuesday, aims to promote increased citizen involvement in policy making and the participation of CSOs in the EU accession process.

BELGRADE - European integration is a significant contribution to strengthening regional cooperation, promotion of good neighborly relations and mutual respect, delegations of foreign affairs committees of the parliaments of southeastern European countries agreed during a meeting Thursday.