Michele Nicoletti, President of the Italian Delegation and President of the Socialist Group, was elected new President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), during the opening of the 2018 winter session. This is the second time that an Italian has been appointed to this important office, being Giuseppe Vedovato the first one between 1972 and 1975.
In his opening speech, President Nicoletti mentioned Alcide De Gasperi and Altiero Spinelli, who have imagined – even before the end of the Second World War – a European future where fundamentals rights would have been protected by the supreme guarantees of a supranational Court. He also underlined that the individual is the main character of the European Convention of human rights system, drawing the attention of the deputies to the fact that “the Council of Europe can survive not only thanks to the will of the governments that set out their position in the treaty; it also lives thanks to the determination of citizens, their resources and their mandate”.
With the election of Nicoletti, Italy has five senior positions in the Council of Europe. The four others in the Strasbourg Organization are held by the Deputy Secretary General, Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, by the President of the European Court of Human Rights, Guido Raimondi, by the President of the Venice Commission, Gianni Buquicchio, and by the Vice-Governor of the Council of Europe Development Bank, Carlo Monticelli.
The President speech is available at this link:
http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/Records/2018/E/1801221130E.htm
