Romania's Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu will be attending, May 16-17, a meeting of the Council of Europe (CoE) Committee of Ministers in Helsinki under the chairmanship of the Presidency of Finland.
The Helsinki meeting will also mark the transfer of the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers to France, according to a press statement released by Romania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE).
The main topic of the meeting is the need of a shared responsibility for ensuring democratic security in Europe, as well as discussing the latest report by the current secretary general of the Council of Europe called "Ready for future challenges - Reinforcing the Council of Europe."
Discussions will focus on the solutions proposed by Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary-general of the Council, at the end of the Finnish tenure, such as the need to develop a sustained dialogue between the Committee of Ministers and the CoE Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), in order to build a joint trusting space to redefine the legal bases of the organisation and reconfigure existing mechanisms to meet the new challenges facing the Council of Europe.
The agenda also includes the importance of guaranteeing the effectiveness of the European Convention on Human Rights, strengthening the Council of Europe's dialogue with neighbouring regions and co-operation with the European Union.
The Committee of Ministers consists of one representative each of the 47 CoE member states. The chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers is held for six months by each member state of the Council of Europe in alphabetical order.
Since 2004, ministerial sessions take place only once a year.