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13.05.2009 Matyas Eörsi comments on the Secretary General election

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Readers,

I am sure you understand it is uneasy for me to comment the procedure about the election of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. As a candidate to the highest position in the organisation, it is difficult to remain objective. But even if I could judge the process from ALDE or from the whole Council of Europe's viewpoint, I would fully understand that many people would question my objectivity.

The facts are the following. After the resolution of the Assembly and the promise of the Chairman in Office of the Committee of Ministers to seek for compromise, the foreign ministers met in Madrid, and in spite of the signal of our president Mr. Lluis Maria de Puig that the Committee of Ministers may risk that there will be no election of the Secretary General during the June part session, only seven were in favour of reopening the question of the short listing.

In my campaign I put special emphasis to a much better collaboration among the different parts of the institution, especially between the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly. Now I regret to see that the tension between the two is getting worse than ever, and in the year when we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Council of Europe we are rushing into an institutional clash.

I still hope that a compromise can be reached. A compromise, under which the Committee of Ministers remains entitled to express which candidates it has difficulties to work together with, but in a way that the Parliamentary Assembly should not feel that the sole purpose of the Committee of Ministers is to prevent by all means that a parliamentarian is becoming next Secretary General.

I still hope and wish that the final decision will solely be based on substance, enabling the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly to work together in a cooperative manner in order to be more effective in assisting democratic processes in our member states.

Yours sincerely

Mátyás Eörsi

Added on 13-05-2009

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