DECLARATION ON THE PRINCIPLES OF EUROPEAN UNITY AND COOPERATION
29 October 2015
On November 27 the Standing Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will meet in Sofia and vote on the declaration tabled by Dr. Dzhema Grozdanova.


The Bulgarian initiative has garnered support from all leaders of Political Factions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Chairperson of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, as well as the Leaders of the German and Hungarian delegations to PACE.
The draft declaration submitted in Strasbourg on 29 September 2015 was modified by Dr. Grozdanova and the Leaders of Political Factions.
A text was added in the modified draft of the Declaration in which PACE is calling for a Summit of Heads of State and Government so that the member states, in respect of the Bulgarian initiative, reaffirm at the highest political level their commitment to the common Values and Principles of Democracy, Human Rights and the Rule of Law.
The history of the Council of Europe knows only three such Summits held in Vienna in 1993, in Strasbourg in 1997 and in Warsaw in 2005.
The adoption of the Declaration means a call by the MPs from the Council of Europe member states to convene a Fourth Summit as a forum on the future of Europe, which will be our Bulgarian contribution of great historical significance for the European unity and cooperation. We believe that this Declaration would open a new page in the History of our United Europe.
The Standing Committee, which acts on the Assembly's behalf between plenary sessions, is made up of the President and Vice-Presidents of the Assembly, the chairpersons of political groups, the chairpersons of national delegations and the committee chairpersons, totalling some 60 parliamentarians.