Maltese MPs for Council of Europe meeting discussing abortion

Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando will lead a Maltese delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe next week when access to safe and legal abortion in Europe is expected to be debated.

The government has already made it amply clear that Malta will continue to oppose abortion at all international fora, even though any Council of Europe resolution is not legally binding on any country.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic are among the leading personalities who will address the Parliamentary Assembly during this session.

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, will present his annual activity report. Other subjects to be debated are European Muslim communities confronted with extremism; abuse of the criminal justice system in Belarus; child and teenage suicide in Europe: a serious public health issue; the accession of the European Union/European Community to the European Convention on Human Rights; promoting the teaching of European literature; the situation of national minorities in Vojvodina and of the Romanian ethnic minority in Serbia; immigration from sub-Saharan Africa; and sustainable development and tourism: towards quality growth.

The delegation, which includes Nationalist MP Robert Arrigo, Labour MP Leo Brincat and Joe Debono Grech (who has submitted his nomination to contest the casual election on the eighth district for the seat vacated by Alfred Sant), will be attending the Second Part of the 2008 Ordinary Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg between Monday and Friday.