Strasbourg, 27 January 1997 - The president of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly said today that the organization's second summit meeting will probably take place at its headquarters in Strasbourg during the second week of October.
Leni Fischer said that France, the Council's host country, had suggested the two-day summit be held on October 10-11. France will hold the Council's revolving presidency during the last six months of this year.
Fischer said the gathering of heads of state and government would give voice at the highest level to the eight member states that had entered the 40-nation Council since its first summit five years ago in Vienna. Seven of the eight new members are East European nations -- Albania, Croatia, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine. (Andorra is the eighth.)
Fischer said the summit will also deal with a number of important substantive issues. She mentioned the possible appointment of a high-level Council representative to deal with human rights questions, increases in the Council's budget and the restructuring of some of its institutions.
Fischer spoke at a press briefing in Strasbourg just before the opening this afternoon of a week-long Winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly.