Today
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a
resolution on "The crisis of democracy and the role of government in
modern Europe" based on the report from the Swiss deputy, Andreas Gross.
The author believes that the economic crisis in Europe has exacerbated
public distrust of democracy. "In a broad sense, this was due to serious
shortcomings in the functioning of democratic institutions, which have
not been able to prevent, quickly and adequately respond to new
challenges," Gross said. In his view, the basic idea of democracy is the
control of society over the power and promise of a fair distribution of
life chances.
The
report noted that a number of CE member countries are still under the
monitoring of its obligations: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan.
The
report highlighted the role of independent media in ensuring democracy,
an important institution, which provides control over actions of the
government. It points to the inadmissibility of the monopolies in the
media that take place in several countries of the Council of Europe.
