PACE president hopes to restore special-guest status for Belarus

The 318-member Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today elected Mevlüt Cavusoglu as its new president at the opening of its plenary session in Strasbourg (January 25-29). The new president hopes that the Belarusian parliament will have its special-guest status at the Council of Europe restored in 2010. "Belarus is the only country on the European continent which is not a member of the Council of Europe", Belapan quoted Cavusoglu as saying. In June 2009, PACE passed a resolution to return Belarus' special-guest status on condition that the country introduces moratorium on death penalty.

Mr Cavusoglu is the first Turk to hold the office since Turkey's accession to the Council of Europe in August 1949. He succeeds Luis Maria de Puig (Spain, SOC) as the Assembley's 25th president.