“The rule of law must serve everyone to create confidence, domestically but also internationally, because if we are to have proper cross-border co-operation, then that can only function on the basis of a proper rules-based international order. A common set of rules that everyone observes," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in her speech at the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe today, APA reports.
"A reliable order is the basis for peaceful relations between states because companies and businesses need the rule of law in order to be able to plan securely for the future. If they are willing to take risks then they have to be sure that the will be able to defend their rights before independent courts. If you seek to bolster rights, you are boosting prosperity at the same time. Let’s take for example the Council of Europe’s campaign against corruption. It has made a significant contribution to greater international reliability, which again is a pre-requisite for peaceful co-existence and indeed is the hallmark of our international values. If states’ sovereignty is abused - for example in Crimea or in Nagorno-Karabakh - then we are all at risk,” Angela Merkel warned.
“The Council of Europe can play a decisive role, but only if all organs of the Organisation pull together and work with one another,” she said, encouraging the President of the Assembly to continue to strive for consistent co-operation and confidence-building between parliaments and states, as well as between the Parliamentary Assembly and the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. “A positive sign of such co-operation is the new joint mechanism which the Council of Europe will use to sanction any violations of its basic standards,” she added.
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