The Minister will present the activities of the Committee of Ministers for the past period since the summer session of the PACE at the PACE’s October plenary sitting. On this occasion, he will also elaborate on concrete events linked to the Czech chairmanship’s priorities.

On the occasion of his visit to Council of Europe’s headquarters, Minister Zaorálek will meet with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Mr Thorbjørn Jagland, with the President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities Ms Gudrun Mosler-Törnström and with the leaders of the PACE for short bilateral talks. Minister Zaorálek will also take part in the ceremony to announce this year’s winner of the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize which is awarded annually by the PACE in cooperation with the Václav Havel Library and the Charter 77 Foundation. On this occasion, Minister Zaorálek will open the exhibition Václav Havel – Politics and Conscience in the Council of Europe’s building.

PACE is originally a consultative body of the Council of Europe which consists of individual national parliamentary delegations. There are four sessions of the PACE in plenary in Strasbourg each year. The PACE adopts non-binding documents such as resolutions, recommendations and opinions. Among its special tasks is the monitoring of member states’ obligations, assumed at their accession to the Council of Europe.