Council of Europe Secretary General, Marija Pejčinović Burić, has met with the new Mayor of Strasbourg, Jeanne Barseghian, at the Council of Europe. On the agenda of this first meeting were the partnership agreement between the two institutions, the World Forum for Democracy, as well as the environment.
Welcoming the good co-operation between the Council of Europe and the City of Strasbourg, the Secretary General and the Mayor decided to strengthen the links and give a new impetus to the partnership agreement through new topics. The environment and human rights, gender equality, combating violence against women, children’s rights and the topics of integration and discrimination were all mentioned as possible areas of cooperation.
The Secretary General also welcomed the municipality’s commitment to taking account of climate-change issues and social and democratic challenges in its decisions and projects.
The Council of Europe is promoting a holistic approach to environmental protection based on respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law. A draft recommendation and a draft Convention to combat environmental crime are currently being drawn up.
In addition, the Mayor underlined the importance of better informing people in Strasbourg about the Council of Europe and its achievements as well as the common values shared by the two institutions. She also underlined the importance of the presence of diplomatic missions of Council of Europe member states in the European capital.
Finally, they discussed the World Forum for Democracy, focusing on “Can Democracy Save the Environment?”, which has been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and is now scheduled for 8-10 November 2021. The Mayor expressed the will to maintain the side events of the Forum, to address the topic in the long term and to raise the interest of the general public by a launching event as early as this year.
