His Serene Highness Prince Albert II arrived at the Council of Europe on Thursday, October 1, accompanied by the official Monégasque delegation.
On arrival, the Sovereign was formally welcomed on the esplanade of the Council of Europe by Petra Bayr, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the PACE Secretary General, and the organisation’s Protocol Service.
That ceremonial welcome was followed by a bilateral meeting with Bayr, held in her office.
The 30-minute meeting gave both sides the chance to discuss relations between Monaco and the Council of Europe, as well as areas of shared interest.
The visit comes during PACE’s autumn plenary session, running in Strasbourg from September 28 to October 2, and comes a day after the Prince addressed the full Assembly, defending multilateralism and international law in a twenty-minute speech marking twenty years since Monaco joined the organisation.
It also falls during Monaco’s first-ever presidency of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, a six-month term running from May 15 to November 10, with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Isabelle Berro-Amadeï serving as President of the Committee throughout.