Commenting on the High-Level Conference on Environmental Protection and Human Rights organised today by the Georgian chairmanship of the Council of Europe, ALDE-PACE President Jacques Maire declared that the ALDE group in the Parliamentary Assembly was ready to push for a new legal instrument linking environment and human rights.
“Today the President of the Parliamentary Assembly Rik Daems proposed an ambitious calendar for concrete steps to be taken in this regard. We are ready to play our part in making the Council of Europe a catalyst for change. To those who say it is impossible, I remind that the project of making human rights a cornerstone of our pan-European organisation in 1949 – just four years after the end of a bloody war – could also appear unimaginable. If we do not act today, tomorrow will be too late. Let us have the courage to take up this challenge on the European continent. If Europe is not the beacon, I don’t know who else would be”.
