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Jagland hopes closer cooperation with EU on human rigths

Ararat News-Publishing (ANP) – Roni Alasor / Fiona Lorin, Brussels – 19/ 10/ 2009 – The head of the Council of Europe, the The Norwegian Thorbjørn Jagland paid his first external visit to Brussels after being elected as Secretary General of Council of Europe. Jagland hopes closer cooperation with EU on human rights field.

Jagland participated at the EU Ministerial Conference “Towards Global EU Action against Trafficking in Human Beings”. General Jagland took the occasion to call for the ratification of the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings by all European Union member states which have not yet done so. The Convention is the first European treaty in the field of human trafficking and it applies to all its forms (forced labour, sexual exploitation, organ trafficking etc.) Jagland reminded that today the Convention has been ratified by 16 EU member states and 9 are still expected to join the common efforts in combating the modern form of “slave trade”.

General Thorbjørn Jagland met also the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Durao Barroso. The two leaders discussed the possibilities of closer partnership between the EU and the Council of Europe. The two organisations signed in 2007 a Memorandum of Understanding providing future accession of the European Union to the European Convention of Human Rights, which will give more opportunities in relations between the Council of Europe and the European Union.

Thorbjørn Jagland insisted that he would like to see more cooperation between the two bodies, adding that “the EU is by far the most important partner for the Council of Europe”. Therefore, General Jagland welcomed also the new decision of Barroso to create new portfolio for justice and fundamental rights in the next administration of the EU Commission as opportunity to work more for the human rights in EU.

Thorbjørn Jagland is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party and is elected Secretary General of the Council of Europe since September 2009. The President of the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) from 2005 to 2009, Jagland served as the Prime Minister of Norway from 1996 to 1997, and later as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2001. In 2009, he became Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

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