The Plenary of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has approved with an overwhelming majority the Report, Resolution and Recommendation of Cypriot rapporteur, former MP Kostis Efstathiou, on combating cross-border repression.
According to a press release by the House of Representatives, in his speech, Efstathiou pointed out that cross-border repression has taken on dangerous dimensions endangering the security and sovereignty of European states.
The Resolution condemns all forms of cross-border repression and proposes a series of measures to better address the phenomenon through coordinated action at European level.
Particular emphasis is placed on strengthening international cooperation, on specialised training of law enforcement authorities for the timely detection and response to these practices and on the exchange of best practices between states.
The recommendation accompanying the Resolution urges the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to proceed with the development of a legally binding institutional framework, with the aim of strengthening the prevention and response to the problem.
After the discussion, both the President of PACE Petra Bayr and the President of the European People’s Party at the plenary Pablo Hispan, praised Efstathiou’s work as a member of PACE over the last decade.
Meanwhile, Efstathiou made a speech at an event held on the sidelines of the plenary on the human rights situation in Turkey and the country’s degree of compliance with the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In his speech, he called on the Turkish authorities to implement, without further delay, the decisions of the ECHR.