Armenian Delegation Welcomes Newly Elected PACE President

STRASBOURG, France – On October 10, Cyprus representative Stella Kyriakides (Cyprus, EPP/CD) was elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe following the resignation of Pedro Agramunt (Spain, EPP/CD) on October 6.

She obtained a large majority over the other candidate, Emanuelis Zingeris (Lithuania, EPP/CD), in the third round of voting. She will remain in office until the opening of the next ordinary session (Strasbourg, 22-26 January 2018).

Both were candidates from the group of the European People’s Party. After the vote, Kiriakides took the chair of the PACE president in the presidium.

She will be the 30th President of PACE since 1949, the first Cypriot, and the third woman to take up the post.

“This election comes during extraordinary times for this Assembly, times that have seen our credibility and integrity questioned. Times that have led to the often wrong type of publicity for the work done in this Assembly, leading to the questioning of the principles of transparency and integrity of the institutions of the Council of Europe. These are challenges and responsibilities for us all. But mostly, for myself as a newly elected President of this Assembly,” said Kyriakides.

“My decision to run for the Presidency stemmed solely from my firm belief in Parliamentary Assembly, in democracy, human rights and the rule of law and my passion to work tirelessly. Today you have given me the opportunity, with the trust you have placed in me, to work towards these. In the upcoming few months my priority is to bring about calmness, consensus, credibility and unity. To work tirelessly and openly against corruption. To raise the bar so that we all follow the same principles and code of ethics. To do this, I will need the support of all political groups, of the Secretary General and the staff of the Council of Europe. Because this is why we are all here,” she concluded.

The Armenian delegation supported the candidacy of Kyriakides. The delegation justified its position by the fact that the name of the representative of Cyprus is not involved in any scandals or deals, during the PACE’s work, it has established itself as a principled, objective and honest politician.

The former PACE President Agramunt stepped down from his post on October 6 citing “personal reasons.” PACE lawmakers were expected to impeach Agramunt during the October session of the parliamentary assembly.

Born on March 10, 1956 in Nicosia, Cyprus, Kyriakides studied psychology at Reading and Manchester Universities. At the Cypriot Ministry of Health, she was in charge of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from 1979-2006.

She was elected to the Parliament of Cyprus in 2006, where she is a member of the Committee on Health Affairs and of the Committee on Foreign and European Affairs and Vice-President of the Democratic Rally Party.

President of the First Breast Cancer Movement in Cyprus in 1999, she was appointed by the Ministerial Council as President of the National Committee on Cancer Strategy in 2016. She organized the first breast cancer awareness campaign at the Council of Europe in 2013.

At the Assembly, she was Chairperson of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development as well as a member of the Monitoring Committee and the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination.

She was a contact parliamentarian for the “No Hate Parliamentary Alliance” and the Council of Europe campaign against Child Sexual Abuse (2013-2015), as well as the General Rapporteur for Children’s Rights (2013-2015).

Kyriakides is the Chairperson of the delegation of Cyprus to PACE and a member of the EPP/CD group.