At today’s session, the Assembly adopted a resolution 2088 (2016) “The Mediterranean Sea: a front door to irregular migration”. The resolution says that only a common European response based on principles of solidarity, responsibility and human rights and strategic migration management at European and national levels can address the present migratory and refugee crisis. It is important to recognise persons who need international protection and provide external processing of asylum applications through hotspots set up outside Europe.

The Assembly also adopted a resolution 2089 (2016) "Organised crime and migrants”. The resolution emphasises that international cooperation and intelligence sharing are essential to combat migrant smuggling by targeting all potentially vulnerable aspects of their business models, including money laundering, abuse of the Internet and corruption of public officials. Hence, the Assembly calls on implementation of a set of measures aimed at tackling smuggling, particularly ratifying and implementing relevant convention of the United Nations and Council of Europe.

During the second part of today’s session, the Assembly conducted a consolidated discussion on fight against terrorism, and with regard to that, supported a resolution 2090 (2016) “Combating international terrorism while protecting Council of Europe standards and values” and resolution 2091 (2016) "Foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq”. Mr Harlem Désir, French Minister of State for European Affairs, took part in the debate on this topic.

On day four of the session, the Assembly will discuss proposals for resolutions “The situation in Kosovo* and the role of the Council of Europe” and “Strengthening the protection and role of human rights defenders in Council of Europe member States” and “How to prevent inappropriate restrictions on NGO activities in Europe?”. In addition to aforementioned, a debate under urgent procedure will be held on the topic “Recent attacks against women in European cities – the need for a comprehensive response”.

In the afternoon part of the session, Monitoring Committee will discuss a report of the PACE co-rapporteurs for Montenegro in post-monitoring dialogue on the visit to Montenegro, carried out in November 2015

Member of Delegation of the Parliament of Montenegro Ms Snežana Jonica is participating in the Winter Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.