The permanent commission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (whose decisions bear the same relevance as those taken in the plenary sessions) adopted with an overwhelming majority Latvian MEP Boris Tsilevich’s report entitled “Protection of National Minorities: Good Practices and Flaws in Implementing Common Norms”.

Tsilevich chose Greece to present the controversial issue of the Macedonian community in this country that the Greek Government refuses to recognize, Utrinski vesnik reports.

Four years ago, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on the countries that had not yet ratified the framework convention on protection of national minorities to do so as soon as possible. However, no headway has been made since. Greece is one of the countries that Tsilevich pays special attention to in the latest report of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Tsilevich investigated in his report the case of the Macedonian minority in Greece that is not recognized by the Greek government. He does not dwell much on the situation of the Muslim minority in Thrace or the Roma minority. He explains that Greece recognizes only one minority – the Muslims, in keeping with the Treaty of Lausanne of 24 July 1923.