From: <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/spesial/wikileaksdokumenter/article3961532.ece">Aftenposten</a><br>
Date: 04.05.2009

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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 STRASBOURG 000009 
SIPDIS 
MADRID FOR POL STATE ALSO FOR EUR/ERA 
E.O. 12958:
DECL: 5/4/2019 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, COE, FR, GG, RU 
SUBJECT: COUNCIL OF EUROPE: RANCOR IN THE RANKS 

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CLASSIFIED BY: Vincent Carver, CG, Strasbourg, State. REASON: 1.4 (b), (d)

1. C)
SUMMARY: The Council of Europe´s (COE) election for its next
secretary general has produced internecine warfare between
resident ambassadors and the Parliamentary Assembly (PACE),
with the former having short-listed only Thorbjorn Jagland of
Norway and Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz of Poland for the PACE´s
vote in June; the PACE voted overwhelmingly for candidates Luc
Van den Brande of Belgium and Matyas Eorsi of Hungary (both
PACE members) to be including in the June vote. The PACE
session April 27-30 criticized Russia over non-cooperation
regarding human rights. The COE´s 60th anniversary ministerial
in Madrid will focus on the next secretary general´s election
as well as the attempted end-run around Russia regarding
Protocol 14 and the working of the European Court of Human
Rights (ECHR). An attempt by Swiss parliamentarian Dick Marty
to revisit "secret prisons" was unsuccessful. End summary.

2. C)
The COE´s Council of Ministers´ deputies (resident
ambassadors) held a closed-door rancorous session April 22 to
select which names of the four candidates it would forward to
the PACE for election in June as the next secretary general.
According to long-serving COE Secretariat official Mireille
Paulus (please protect), the session was one of the most
contentious in years. After more than four hours of debate and
procedural maneuvering, the deputies voted to send the names
of Jagland (Norway) and Cimoszewicz (Poland) to the PACE for
the election in June. Both the Belgian and Hungarian
ambassadors expressed their frustration to us privately, with
the Belgian noting that Belgian candidate Van den Brande
likely would continue to lobby for inclusion in the "short
list" although he (the ambassador) believed the battle over.
Several ambassadors told us that while they recognized both
Van den Brande´s and Eorsi´s contributions to the COE as PACE
members, they also wanted to respect the Junker Report which
recommended that persons of standing, particularly former
prime ministers and foreign ministers, should serve as COE
Secretary General. Paulus told us that while neither Jagland
nor Cimoszewicz had the profile the COE would prefer, they
were still more visible in European affairs that the other two
candidates and technically met the Junker criteria.

3. C)
Several PACE members told us throughout the PACE session April
27-30 that they viewed the deputies´ decision as a
"power-grab," with resident ambassadors wanting to ensure that
one of "their" insider candidates, rather than a
democratically elected representative (and therefore "less
controllable") of the PACE, become the next secretary general.
In fact, the PACE voted overwhelmingly (158 - 1 - 11) for the
Council of Ministers to reconsider and include all four
candidates for the June election. Paulus told us that Spanish
FM Moratinos, as Chair of the Council of Ministers, had agreed
before the PACE vote with the leaders of the PACE´s political
groups to do so. Paulus stressed to us that Moratinos had
agreed to be accompanied at those meetings by Van den Brande
and Eorsi, a decision that Paulus characterized as
"non-statesmanlike." The deputies will review the bidding May
6 but ministers themselves likely will have to decide at the
Madrid Ministerial May 12 whether to respect their
ambassador´s decision or to bow to pressure from Moratinos and
the PACE and include all four names for the election by PACE
in June.

4. C)
On substance, the PACE session focused on Georgia-Russia, with
more parliamentarians noting that while Georgia has fulfilled
"most" of its COE obligations in the aftermath of the war,
Russia has not. The PACE Secretary General had told us that
most PACE members had decided that the situation regarding
Georgia-Russia had not changed significantly since the last
PACE session in January and therefore the PACE would not take
any significant decision on the matter. The PACE did pass a
resolution on the humanitarian consequences of the war (vote:
133 - 0 - 13). The Georgian Ambassador told us that he is
preparing a call to question the Russian delegation´s
credentials - likely in the September session, given that one
year will have passed at that point since the PACE first
debated the consequences of the war. The Georgian ambassador
told us that he expects more PACE members to be sympathetic to
suspending the Russians at that point in time. (Comment: While
more deputies may indeed agree, we doubt whether such a move
would pass; almost all COE bodies strongly favor continued
engagement over sanctions regarding almost every country on
any issue. End comment.)

5. U)
The PACE also reviewed the situation of human rights defenders
in COE member states, with several members noting the
difficulties of defenders in Russia, while one Russian
questioned the intentions of some individuals who claim they
are human rights defenders. The PACE noted that Serbia had
steadily made progress on its COE commitments but that
Belgrade still had to take further concrete measures to ensure
that all its commitments are fully met. On Moldova, the PACE
noted deficiencies in the recent elections and called for a
political

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dialogue among all major political groups there.

6. U)
Spanish PM Zapatero, Finnish President Halonen, and Spanish FM
Moratinos delivered speeches and answered parliamentarians´
questions at the PACE. Zapatero stressed his campaign to
promote women´s rights and to promote a global moratorium on
the use of the death penalty. Zapatero said all countries must
fight terrorism but that the international community must also
examine terrorism´s roots. Halonen took a few veiled jabs at
Russia, said isolation of Belarus had not worked, and stressed
the need for global cooperation and private-public
partnerships in light of the global financial crisis.
Moratinos stressed that the COE must pass Protocol 14 (held up
for Russia´s refusal to ratify the protocol, which would
streamline ECHR proceedings, thereby allowing more cases -
including the thousands backlogged from Russia - to be
processed more quickly), and that the world must eradicate
terrorism - a phenomenon that poses great security and human
rights challenges.

7. C)
The PACE passed a resolution supporting "Protocol 14bis," a
maneuver that will likely be approved (two-thirds needed) by
ministers in Madrid that will serve most of the purposes of
the stalled Protocol 14. The resolution, debated on the eve of
the May Day long weekend, passed 39-0-0, with the Russian
delegation boycotting the session. Most of our contacts have
told us that they expect Lavrov to lobby heavily in Madrid for
ministers not to take action on Protocol 14bis, but that most
other countries, fed up with Russian intransigence on the
issue, will adopt the measure anyway.

8. C)
Only a dozen or so parliamentarians signed on to Swiss
parliamentarian Dick Marty´s attempt to re-examine "secret
prisons" in Europe. The Romanian Ambassador had alerted us in
March to Marty´s efforts; the Romanian also told us few member
states wanted to re-open debate on this question.

CARVER
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