Ministers discussed current activities aimed at bringing forward in the UN General Assembly the issue of abolishing the death penalty, notably on the basis of a briefing by the Presidency. They noted that the EU would keep this issue high on the EU and the international agenda and would carefully explore prospects for relaunching consideration of this important question in UN fora. The Presidency will actively continue to implement the EU action plan on the death penalty adopted in February, notably to elicit additional support for the UN declaration against the death penalty.

The Council will decide on possible further steps on the basis of an assessment of the outcome of the EU action plan.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the initiative for a universal moratorium on the death penalty. It pointed out that the call for a universal moratorium on the death penalty is a strategic move towards the abolition of the death penalty in all countries. The statement on the death penalty presented by the European Union in the UN General Assembly on 19 December 2006 has now gathered 88 signatures from countries in all geographical groups, and Parliament reiterated its call to the EU Member States to gather third-country support for the statement.

It encouraged the EU to seize the existing opportunities and press its case. All Member States and the EU must immediately submit - seeking the co-sponsorship of countries in other continents - a resolution for a universal moratorium on the death penalty to the current UN General Assembly. The EU Presidency should encourage those remaining countries which have not signed and ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to do so, and those Member States that have not signed Protocol No 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights on the death penalty must do so.

Parliament endorsed the declaration at the third World Congress against the Death Penalty held in Paris between 1 and 3 February 2007 and intended to follow up It would develop the parliamentary dimension of the global campaign against the death penalty and raise the matter through its interparliamentary delegations and participation in the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly.

The Council and the Commission were asked to take every possible opportunity to support the establishment of regional abolitionist coalitions.

Lastly, Parliament calls on all EU institutions, together with the Council of Europe, to support the World Day against the Death Penalty by declaring 10 October a European Day against the Death Penalty, from 2007 onwards. It endorsed the initiative of organising a high-profile European conference against the death penalty in connection with that day, and mandated its President to represent the European Parliament on that occasion.