1. Opening of the meeting by the President of the Parliamentary Assembly

Mr Tiny KOX, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, opened the meeting and thanked the Icelandic Parliament for their great hospitality and their tremendous efforts to organise the day’s meeting in a beautiful building. The preparations were happening ahead of the 4th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe for the two days following. He said that Iceland was performing to the best of its abilities, and he raised his metaphorical hat to them. They were gathered here on what was likely to become the eve of a historic summit. He added that it was difficult to think of a better place fit for the purpose, since it was here, in Reykjavík in 1986, that Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met and began to end the Cold War. He said this opened the possibilities, for the first time ever, to unite nearly all European states under the Statute of the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights. He said this was truly an achievement. The Council of Europe evaluated the progress made in line with the Statute’s goal during the 2nd and 3rd Summits, as Mr KOX quoted: “to achieve greater unity in Europe, to safeguard and realise the ideals and principles which are our common heritage”, as stated in Article 1 of the Statute. Mr KOX announced that over the following two days, the Heads of State and Government would recognise that the Council of Europe was a unique peace project which started almost 75 years ago, in the aftermath of a very devastating Second World War. It had one clear goal: to prevent a new war from happening in Europe again. Mr KOX reflected on the fact that for a long time, this seemed like a success story. However, it was when Russia, then the Council of Europe’s biggest member State, crossed Ukraine’s borders on 24 February 2022, that the war of aggression was brought back to Europe. He said that Russia’s aggression also crossed the red lines of the Council of Europe, bringing an existential challenge to the European peace project. While Russia was quickly expelled from the organisation, at the unanimous request of the Parliamentary Assembly, the challenge was still there. Mr KOX said there were other challenges too: the growing erosion of trust in democratic institutions and principles that was exacerbating an already existing democratic backsliding in Europe. There were great worries about the environment, climate change, consequences of artificial intelligence for human rights, amongst many more. There was an urgent need to start to find sustainable answers to these huge challenges bringing leaders together here in Reykjavík, and for them as well, to show the dimension of the Parliamentary Assembly. He called it Europe’s oldest and broadest organisation, which stood for the conviction that, he quoted from the preamble from the Statute: “the pursuit of peace based upon justice and international co-operation is vital for the preservation of human society and civilisation”. Mr KOX hoped this would be mentioned again in the final declaration to be delivered here the following afternoon (Wednesday, 17 May) by the Heads of State and Government, after the closure of the Summit. It was the Parliamentary Assembly which had called for this kind of summit for a long time, said Mr KOX as a reminder, especially since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression. He said it was most satisfactory that their governments had responded to this call, quickly and decisively. Reykjavík was where they would bear witness to the outcomes of this collective effort by the Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly, and the Secretary General. He warmly thanked those who had contributed to making the Summit a reality, including the Irish, Icelandic, and Italian presidencies of the Committee of Ministers and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. He added a special thanks to Ms Þórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð GYLFADÓTTIR, the Icelandic Minister of Foreign Affairs, who was in charge of organising the Summit, and who made it happen. He congratulated her. Mr KOX also stressed that many of the decisions that would be taken here in the 4th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe were in line with many of the ideas that were generated in the Parliamentary Assembly over the past year. He conveyed special gratitude to Ms Fiona O’LOUGHLIN for her report, which collected these ideas, and which inspired the Heads of State and Government when they were preparing their decisions, to be taken over the following two days at the Summit. In response to a round of applause from the audience, Mr KOX addressed Mr Iulian BULAI and repeated that these were Ms Fiona O’LOUGHLIN’s ideas, which the Heads of State and Government had listened very carefully to. Mr KOX said he would mention some of the things that he hoped would be in the final statement: including the Parliamentary Assembly’s call to set up a comprehensive system of accountability with a view to ensuring that

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