brighton if you knew me. from months to. come. back here's a recap of the main stories we're covering on our t.v. today the us said israel fallout over palestine as prime minister benjamin netanyahu rejects president obama's package of peace in the middle east a washington is pushing for an independent palestinian state and wants a return to pre-one thousand nine hundred seven war borders or that something is wrote refuses to consider. illegal dogs of the white house sidelines the us constitution by skipping the deadline to keep its forces in action over libya

without approval from congress there's been next to no criticism on capitol hill as the costly intervention of moves into its third mark. plus the end is nigh according to one religious group in america they say they're prepared to meet their maker this saturday which they've calculated to be judgement day. of turmoil in the arab world has prompted some european states to impose border restrictions to keep out refugees fleeing the violence well next i'll go all the light asks the secretary general of the council of europe if freedom of travel within europe could become a thing of the past. hello again to welcome to spotlight millions of the shell products think i'm going to hug

them today my guess is. just part to an uprising in the arab world led to bloody conflicts some of which are still going on the fourth humanitarian situation in the region forced thousands of people to flee their homes and sail overseas to the safe and happy but the old world was not a theft the problem has scared the european so much that some governments have restricted the border control end up thinking even suspending shan't get agreement basic for the e.u. are we witnessing the end of the united states europe and if not how does the old world going to respond to the challenge here is the same general of the council of europe probably on the other. two months ago several european countries and the u.s. started bombing the gadhafi loyalists in libya today the old world is feeling the kid back from the operation as thousands of refugees are coming to the continent

every day from libya and other arab countries several states like denmark and belgium have already introduced stricter control measures on the borders others proposed to leave the shang get agreement which allows the free travel inside the united europe and is the cornerstone of the. thank you very much for coming thank you for being here i didn't hear any day but your yes and it's a real pleasure to well first of all speaking about the big problem that we. having that specially in saddling you they if the unrest on the other side of the mediterranean continues how do you pin country ready to absorb immigrants or will admission the restrictions we be introduced just well i was there not for the kind

being we are not prepared. because there is no real burden sharing within the sharing in area. also. in the ability to receive people from facilities and people to. be trained to receive people in a proper way are not sufficiently in place so there will be a very big challenge you can see it already. people are coming around the some countries have started to constable those years we are seeing it and we also are getting reports that the delhi government is introducing border controls inside the ship and france is also considering this possibility is there a serious risk that there may and no war. open borders in the year of that we may see yes there is serious risk but we have to.

take it to count the pact that there are two different. danger our government is arguing for closing or making restrictions on the border because of the floor. criminals. and that is something different than. what you're operating on namely the problem of. ai salem seacrest so we have two problems i think with the open borders one is international crime would have had for a very long time. course pressure on the borders from. the europe should the europeans try to do something to find the course try to to convince their mcgreevy and sustain to stay in their home as the stay stay in our africa rather than seek asylum in europe when is it possible to convince them. i don't think it's

possible to convince people but thought they can do is to help the contras to overcome all the problems being told the problems have some economic and social development so that more people want to stay in this congress but that is a much more long term project so we cannot say to people that wants to live there don't have a job don't have sufficient food or. opportunity for their own children that they should stay where they are on. the contrary well the recent influx of immigrants into countries like italy and france has prompted calls for the re-instatement of internal border controls within the european union spotlessly energy me that has worried that. the tiny tail and island of lampedusa has been swept with waves of illegal immigration resembling a human tsunami situated between north africa and southern europe the island is the

easiest destination for this project and the asians and libyans trying to skate plan rest in their homeland to cope with the influx of migrants in italy handed out residents these as along when them to travel in the european union after france noticed more and more refugees headed in its direction and booked on train services from italy and these at the european parliament of knowledge agree on how to control immigration through the each member state put in its interests first and when a charter for the problem in vile migrants have been getting passed from one state to another the whole situation eventually led to the leaders of france and italy i only joined proposal to the european commission in which the urged him organization of the shenyang agreements denmark decided not to wait for the reform and we introduced border controls from rather new members some other european countries have we seen our sentiments contained in these. regime travel and question.

well. eventually this destruction as you may you may tighten the the border control but what from the humanitarian point of view and europe is is a very humanitarian a real entity a place in the woods what should we do to people that have crossed the sea on a small well the people who are desperate the people who may die people with children and and that have left behind all their belongings what are we going to do to them turn them back to the. to they don't have a lot of i think this is the crucial issue for europe because now we are telling these countries that they should develop democracy and. democratic institutions so what we had to do is to view these people to handle these people in human history way that is a concern for the council europe that is. not is the guardian or the human rights

convention european human rights convention we have to see to it that these people got a calming is being treated in accordance with the. principles of the european commission on human rights and therefore we have made no guidelines for the forty seven governments on how they are going to should deal with these people and also we are trained in training or pretty sure that can take care of these people then are calming to the borders in compliance with. the european convention well as they say a lot depends of the people on the point of view for example. the council of europe has has started an inquiry is called for inquiry into the death of sixty one of those but people and you say it was the fault of the of the military rescue units that were unable to save them but in. we have and there are reports that this this

illegal immigration or illegal immigration becomes a business and therefore the so so shouldn't we tried to talk all this pressure on those who are organizing this illegal business absolutely absolutely you should do that and you should have more cooperation between. european states and also all. those states. that are hosting that kind of people you know neighborhoods sort of course but having said this we have to take care of and protect people where do they are sort of recruited by. by people that. make you commercial so our lives or not the own whatever whatever people say whatever people feel towards towards the immanence even if they sympathize then they vote for their governments first of all in order for those buildings to

protect their own citizens so do you think that if the governments will continue putting the rights and the interest of the realm said is in front of everything else may this continuing unrest and thinning immigration lead to. a worsening of relations in general between the european countries and the arab and north african countries are there signs that there may be problems it may be problems of course you can see already that on the european continent immigration is causing a lot of political moral. that is why we have to handle this in a careful way and that is why also we have to put much more emphasis on assisting these contrasts in order to go forward. set up the democratic institutions to have

economic level development because that is the root cause and unfortunately the european court of congress as well as the united states have not been able to see what was coming we thought were stable countries but. they. all this corruption and mismanagement in this country has created so much for restraint and we've got these revolutions you said recently i quote we began working with an e.c. in officials and the venus commission made the devices our new laws organizing elections and preparing a constitution in tunisia then to quote what role can the council of europe play in the reforms in those countries that are not. members first of all if you want to establish a democracy you need laws that can safeguard free and clear elections then you need

a constitutional that sets up checks and balances between different institutions we have excellent worldwide recognized expert police that can assist these countries in doing so and that is why we have more deployed to venice commission which is being used all over the world for the kind of lawmaking and writing of concentrations so this is a starting point for any democratic development also social and economic development. and then we have a lot of conventions that are open for long and it comes for your members which could be very important for them to join and for parents to call national park in corruption which is a huge problem in tunisia as well as the need to put in all these conflicts so we have instruments that can be helpful for these countries in order to develop. their

economy on the social structures says according to your own yard when the secretary general of the council. called late will did actually after the break so stay with us we'll continue this interview and let's run. players. for the full story we've got it from the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. say twenty years ago the largest country in. the surfaces of the. city. was held in egypt distance began a journey. where did it take to. download the

official r t allocation to your i phone or my pod touch from the i q sampson. charge like on the. video on demand parties minefield costs and r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. on the dot com. players. welcome back to spotlight. just a reminder that my guest in the studio today is beyond the yard land secretary general of the council of europe we talk about the situation in europe situation in northern africa there will ations between between the two parts of the world can be endangered if the if the unrest continues and i'm there for my ideas just mentioned

there there were rumors by the way i said that those countries are not council of you have numbers and you're trying to influence them but there were rumors that countries like tunisia for example may soon become members of your organization other grounds for such rumors or is just like. not i don't think they will become members but they have. become party to some of the very important instruments i truly do they are all really a member of the denis commission which is giving advise not only to come for you remember spirits but. conquers all over the world on the lawmaking writing or constitution so they are already members there they can join some of our important conventions what will happen in the future i can't say but we haven't discussed to get in on a member of congress that our side what we have defined as europe in geographical

terms till now. oh there's been lots of talk and there are people trying to understand why and whose fault is it in what's to blame that the muslims experience difficulties in becoming integrated into the society. why is there more misunderstanding between between europeans and the muslims than with any of that group of people. i think it has to do with the fact that we we are not used to deal with. the diversity. we have always been a compliment or were diverted to actually but. when the muslims came we were in all the time you're with these people and their religion there you know i was thinking how does a religion it has to be a little do with tradition history the way they are living which is quite different

from how we are living. i think also that the terrorism that we have seen which is not scares people away as this case in which is totally useless of course but the fact that some of these terrorists claim that they're acting in the name of islam is scaring people a lot. so live is changing people's minds. so i think it has to do with political leadership and also that we we need to change your mindset hard to deal with people the people who doesn't change you yes you think you think that most of those should become were integrated yes absolutely you shine more accepted you should more well you said mention political leadership this is right for example mr sarkozy is pretty radical yes in this in this respect and this may be a reflection of of the of what the society thinks in france what's your opinion

what's the reaction to the complete then on the veil in france is it is it like a restriction on our freedom or is that. a defense of european values and traditions. this is. something. with their tradition. but i would like i'm calling from scandinavia we have to have a much more pragmatic approach if the group because. if the group come with a real threat to the society i would say that we should have a law against it but it is not a big problem in society. i'm living in france i never see any woman in brooklyn so why should we have a law against it. but france has a very different tradition on this song. well i can see that the book is

threatening human rights but i would say that the fact that many women are forced to wear a book is a problem it's very difficult to make laws against such while we're talking about a symbol it's a purely symbolic thing that the burning of the book like the qur'an the things that these are symbols they don't mean anything for for a real life example if an american priest burned a book it is nothing to do with life. on the other side of the globe but this isn't the point an important symbol and i think that today this and this competition between between the east and the west the muslims and christians is all about those simple symbolic acts how important obey the bulk of the qur'an the flag what the the the the moon was shouting in the early in the morning here is a love. i would say that it gives a very important we see her in. a culture we have to pay respect to the fact that

really he's a very important for many people and we have to respect it. even if it's so loud here even if it's five o'clock in the morning. in your neighborhood years i think but i don't think i should impose this on us. that's something different and i don't think we should burn books and all that kind of things because it is insulting and we know are going to cause a lot of. i mean prostration anger in many circles of the world so why should we do it i mean we should say to people being yes you have the freedom of expression you can say what you want you can make. quite too or you can burn a book you have the right to do it but why should you do it it's not an obligation

but do you think if you try to be tolerant in europe then you think zero tolerance for from from the other side when you draw a cartoon you probably should go to a newspaper and as a reaction people die people are killed you burn a book and other people die well a book burned in america isn't worth killing people. who are running this is zero tolerance if if europe will be tolerant facing zero tolerance this means your europe's culture is doomed here's a little bit against pause why should we burn a book and why should accuse people because because bird. this is the extremists and i'm going to try to say to people that please now think about all those things i think all these symbols that are coming up in the political debate is also used by extreme political forces and i think you do so also filling

a gap. because. i mean on center oriented politicians the many have failed to do the right things with unemployment. and guiding the economy and all this. and therefore. all their fortunes are feeling this political symbols. well since we've met nearly here you go there's one more talk about the complete failure of multiculturalism in europe. do you agree that it is failing that it's falling apart do you think it is it does still have future not i don't think it has failed but there are so many different missions or what is multiculturalism i'm talking about diversity we have always had diversity with respect to religion ethnic background and all this in europe we are becoming more and more diverse so be should princeton's to today

most countries are respecting the rights of. homosexuals and lesbians which is unusual it is not a new problem and but the fact that we recognize their lives it symbolizes development in order to start to be becoming more and more diverse and we have to respect it and we kind of do have a video so when for instance the president sarkozy said this about will call i can understand because he also added and. the transfer america's good it's also that. we should know a lot of parallel societies to develop that i don't we should not have parallel societies and in the societies that develop their own laws. because everybody should have something. the same basis the same laws but not only

on the political the political sphere and mean i mean on the summit level but on the grounds roots of the we are witnessing today the rise of extremist praised far right parties enough for a big point is. extreme popular point is this that mean that the whole european project has its risks. you see chris you've been really. fall apart. earlier. vehicles of ivanov able to literally diversity so we if we are not able to live with diverse a very risky if older then. the whole project is at risk and that is why i think we should now pay much more in penned a pension to what is holding us together to lead to people what are the common european standards the values that are for all these are rights and obligations and

that these rights and obligations are actually in flying in the european convention on human rights and this is the wide sort of important to to strengthen the whole human rights system that we have in europe which i am representing and another question i want to ask you since we still have a couple minutes of the show one of the main. problems that you're working on today is the reform are the quickness trials brick and it's going to concern russia can you can you comment on. what's going to be what got it here live to put it in the context that people talk about because this court is actually representing the common values that we have on the court on the continent and that is why it's so important to strengthen them and that is why it's all being poured into reported record so that the plant do its job and the fact is. we have one and keep a thousand cases pending in the court so we have to make the court more efficient

probably to rush enter yes yes that's right and that is why you have to make the procedures in the court more efficient and that is why we also need to pay much more attention to health records that you mentioned and so on orders to report to dish or e. fight because corruption so that all these applications can be taken care all domestically and not coming to the court in strasbourg so so i mean very dark. two lines or reforms here and one is in the by mistake it's one isn't a quote thank you thank you very much for being with us and just to remind you that that same day my guest was probably on yahoo the secretary general of the council of europe and that's it for now from all of us will be back with more things from the comments on the most buildings in and outside russia until then stay on target see and take their take.