Council of Europe requests member countries to stop supporting secessionist movements

The Council of Europe called upon the member states to stop any act of supporting secessionist movements, Deputy Speaker and head of Moldova’s delegation to the PACE Liliana Palihovici said in a news conference on Monday, Info-Prim Neo reports. “In my speech delivered at the PACE, I said that Moldova suffers because of the intervention or support that a state offers to a separatist group. Moldova’s integration is affected by this. We asked that after the resolution is adopted all the Council of Europe member states respect it and provide no support to the secessionist movements because this support affects not only Moldova’s security, but also the European and international security,” said Liliana Palihovici. MP Valeriu Ghiletski, who formed part of the delegation, said the Council of Europe’s resolution envisions organizing a pan-European conference where there will be worked out international criteria for recognizing secessionist movements, which will be afterward submitted to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for consideration. “It is a sensitive subject because it is not known what proposals will be formulated and what conclusions will be reached in this European conference. We have protracted conflicts, but most of the countries that experience them are afraid to open this Pandora’s box because we can face a series of other problems if we open the door for legalizing secessionist movements,” said Valeriu Ghiletski. The agenda of the PACE session included such issues as combating the use of child abuse images in pornography, protection of personal data on the Internet and in the online media, protection of the child’s rights in connection with the launch of a European campaign in 2012 to stop domestic violence and violence against children, which will involve Moldova. The PACE autumn session took place on October 3-7. Moldova was represented by lawmakers Liliana Palihovici, Igor Corman, Valeriu Ghiletski, Valeriu Munteanu, and Grigore Petrenko.