PACE elects Zsolt Németh vice president

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has elected Zsolt Németh, the head of the Hungarian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, as one of its vice presidents, Németh told MTI by phone on Monday.

Németh noted that Hungary takes over the 6-month rotating presidency of CoE’s Committee of Ministers in May.

Németh will also serve as vice president of the monitoring committee for the next year.

On another subject, Németh called it regrettable that the European Commission had “refused to pass legislation” in connection with the Minority SafePack civil initiative, insisting that

“the European Union must not be reluctant to fulfil its own role of protecting ethnic minorities”.

He added, however, that cooperation between the CoE and the European Commission could be instrumental in resolving “the problem which arose after the EC overlooked the will of 1.2 million signatories and that of the European Parliament.”