Terrorism, Migration, Drone Use to Dominate PACE Agenda on Thursday

On the fourth day of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s spring session, the lawmakers are expected to focus on terrorism, migration, drone use and football governance reform.

STRASBOURG (Sputnik) — On Thursday, the lawmakers will debate a new additional protocol to the Council of Europe’s existing convention on the prevention of terrorism, which seeks to reduce the number of Europeans travelling abroad to join Islamist groups.

An urgent debate will be held on migration crisis in the Mediterranean in light of the growing death toll of refugees from Africa and the Middle East.

In the afternoon session, the lawmakers will turn to the issue of drones and targeted killings.

The assembly members will discuss the report by Spanish lawmaker Arcadio Diaz Tejera, which says that “the use of armed drones for targeted killings raises serious human rights and other international law issues.”

The report notes also that several members of the Council of Europe and countries currently enjoying observer status have used combat drones as weapons of war or for carrying out targeted killings.

Another debate will be held in the evening, and will concern the reform of football governance. The report prepared by British parliamentarian Michael Connarty contains recommendations to FIFA to “speedily open a new procedure for the award of the 2022 World Cup.”

The spring PACE session is being held in the city of Strasbourg on April 20-24.