Ignacio Sanchez Amor meets with the Vice-President of the Commission of the European Union, Frans Timmermans, Bratislava, 14 November 2016COPENHAGEN, 14 November 2014 – The Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s human rights committee, Ignacio Sanchez Amor, met today in Bratislava (Slovakia) with the Vice-President of the Commission of the European Union, Frans Timmermans, whose responsibilities include the rule of law and fundamental rights.

In the meeting, the sides discussed what could be done both within the OSCE and the EU to improve all countries’ records on human rights and the rule of law. Sanchez Amor and Timmermans explored ways to improve co-ordination among relevant OSCE and EU bodies on these issues.

“Co-ordination with other international institutions or organizations with competence in human rights and rule of law issues can be useful for a more effective defense of common democratic principles both East and West of Vienna,” Sanchez Amor said.

The meeting took place on the occasion of a conference of parliamentary committees on European affairs of the EU Member States and within the framework of the Slovak Presidency of the Union. Timmermans and Sanchez Amor have, within the framework of their functions regarding the rule of law and human rights, the opportunity to establish a communications channel to evaluate in each case the convenience of attending the same issues from both institutions and from their respective points of view when they originate in a Member State of the EU.

Sanchez Amor was elected Chair of the OSCE PA’s General Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions at the July 2016 Annual Session in Tbilisi. He has established as one of the main objectives of his mandate the attention to human rights and rule of law issues in the Western countries of the OSCE and not only in the new, developing Eastern democracies.