Ministers' Deputies

Strasbourg, 10-11 May 2000

The 106^th Session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe will be held at the Palais de l’Europe in Strasbourg on Thursday 11 May 2000. On the evening of 10 May 2000, our Secretary General, Mr Walter Schwimmer, has invited us to dinner at his residence, and I am delighted that the Ministers will have the opportunity of holding an informal meeting beforehand, beginning at 7.10 pm, immediately after the group photograph.

The informal meeting will be given over to an exchange of views on the Russian Federation’s contribution to the Council of Europe and Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1456 (2000), in the presence of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Mr Ivanov. In addition to the Secretary General, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly, Lord Russell-Johnston, will take part in this exchange of views. The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Italy, Mr Dini, will also present, on this occasion, the priorities of the future Italian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers.

The formal meeting of the Committee of Ministers on Thursday 11 May will be preceded by the official ceremony opening for signature the Convention on the Promotion of a Transnational Long-term Voluntary Service for Young People, which will take place at 9.45 am in Room 40.

Our formal meeting, whose draft agenda was approved at the 708^th Deputies’ meeting on 3 May 2000 (see Appendix I), will start at 10.00 am. We are invited to adopt two texts approved beforehand by our Deputies, namely the draft message from the Committee of Ministers to the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on social development and the draft Recommendation on Codes of Conduct for Public Officials, and to take note of the report prepared on structural reform of the Council of Europe. These three questions, which are items 4, 5 and 6 on our agenda, should in principle not give rise to debate.

I therefore propose that we focus our discussion on items 2 and 3, which are the two substantive political topics of our agenda. The list of speakers will be drawn up in the light of the indications I receive as to whether the various delegations wish to speak or not, the main topic(s) they wish to address in their speeches and the rank of the Head of Delegation. In view of the time constraints facing us, it is expected that each Minister will in principle speak only once, either under item 2 on the agenda or under item 3, it being understood that his or her speech may briefly refer to other issues of concern.

Once it has been drawn up (and by midday on Friday 5 May at the latest), the list of speakers will be forwarded to you. Each delegation may then, if necessary, make changes on a bilateral basis, informing the Chair in order that a final list of speakers will be available at the opening of the Session. For guidance, and subject to the finalisation of the list of speakers, we can expect that speeches will have to be limited to 5 minutes.

In opening the meeting, I shall give a brief summary of the discussions at the informal meeting the previous evening. I shall then give the floor to the different speakers, in the pre-determined order.

After our exchange of views, I hope that we will be able to adopt the Communiqué on the basis of the elements proposed by our Deputies’ Drafting Group. A more general text will also be made public as "Conclusions of the Chair".

At 3.00 pm I will give a press conference with the Secretary General in Room 301 in the European Press and Information Centre (EPIC).

The detailed programme for the Session is reproduced in Appendix II.

APPENDIX I

Draft Agenda of the 106^th Session of the Committee of Ministers

(as approved by the Deputies at their 708^th meeting) ^{footnote 1}

1. Adoption of the agenda

2. Contribution of the Russian Federation to the Council of Europe and Recommendation 1456 of the Parliamentary Assembly concerning the situation in the Chechen Republic

3. South East Europe - Council of Europe contribution to the Stability Pact

4. Social Development - Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly (Geneva, 26-30 June 2000) - Adoption of a message from the Committee of Ministers

5. Report by the Committee of Wise Persons - Final report on follow-up action

6. Council of Europe Action Plan against Corruption - Adoption of Recommendation No. R (2000) … of the Committee of Ministers to member states on Codes of Conduct for Public Officials

7. Any other business

8. Adoption of the Communiqué of the Session

9. Date of the next meeting

APPENDIX II

COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS

106^th SESSION

(Strasbourg, 10-11 May 2000)

PROGRAMME

10 May 2000

7.05pm: Group photo.

7.10pm: Informal meeting, followed by the traditional dinner hosted by the Secretary General for the Ministers (Secretary General's residence).

8pm: Dinner hosted for other members of the delegations by the Deputy Secretary General (Château de l'Ile).

11 May 2000

9.45am: Opening for signature of the Convention on the Promotion of a Transnational Long-Term Voluntary Service for Young People (Room 40).

10am: Formal Session of the Committee of Ministers.

1pm: Luncheon hosted by Chairman of the Committee of Ministers.

3pm: Press Conference by the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers and the Secretary General.

4pm: Presentation to the Deputies of the priorities of the Italian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers.

1. A draft annotated agenda is available under reference CM(2000)OJ1