The decision today to give SHARE the new legal status as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium, or "ERIC" for short, will help to ensure the long-term sustainability of SHARE, since "ERICs" benefit from a tailor-made legal and governance structure, allowing them to be set up quickly and to operate efficiently.

Calls, therefore, on the Government to address these issues systematically by amending legislation and by ensuring its proper implementation at all levels of government, including the municipalities; points too, in this context, to the recommendations adopted by the Venice Commission in spring 2010 concerning the legal personality of religious communities and the ecclesiastical title ‘Ecumenical’ of the Orthodox Patriarchate; welcomes the recent decision by the ‘Foundations Assembly’ to transfer the Büyükada Greek Orphanage for Boys to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, in accordance with the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, and ...[+++] the granting of Turkish citizenship to several Greek Orthodox clergy in order to facilitate the Patriarchate and the Holy Synod; welcomes the religious ceremony in the Sümela Monastery Museum in Trabzon and the ceremony in the church on Akdamar Island in the province of Van; finds the Turkish Supreme Court decision against Mor Gabriel Monastery, concerning a land dispute with villages and the Turkish Treasury, to be regrettable; restates its expectation that the Government’s announcements about the reopening of the Halki Greek Orthodox seminary will soon be followed by action and by measures providing for the unhindered training of Christian communities’ clergy; urges the Government to pay special attention to educational materials in schools, which should reflect the religious plurality of Turkish society, and to the need for unbiaised learning materials;

Emphasises that all players, including both public and private interest representatives, outside the EU institutions falling within that definition and regularly influencing the institutions, should be considered lobbyists and treated in the same way: professional lobbyists, companies' in-house lobbyists, NGOs, think-tanks, trade associations, trade unions and employers' organisations, profit-making and non-profit-making organisations and lawyers when their purpose is to influence policy rather than to provide legal assistance and defence in legal proceedings or to give legal advice; stresses also, however, that regions and municipalities of the Member States, as well as political parties at national and European level and those bodies which h ...[+++]ave legal status under the Treaties, do not fall within the scope of these rules when they are acting in accordance with the role, and carrying out the tasks of such bodies, as provided for in the Treaties;

Recalls the deteriorating situation in Syria, where the regime's authorities refuse to accord official status to human rights groups and where human rights groups are harassed by the security services and their members are imprisoned for lack of legal status; condemns the arrests of dissenters and people from opposition parties, and urges the Council and the Commission to call on the Syrian government to free the journalists, human rights activists and independent lawyers thus detained and to lift the state of emergency;

The act can be divided into two parts: The first one deals with the legal status of foreign missions to Canada, such as embassies, high commissions and consulates; the second deals with the legal status enjoyed by international organizations such as the United Nations or the International Civil Aviation Organization in Canada.

It stated that the Convention responsible for drawing up the Charter should leave open the two options regarding its final status, as envisaged by the Heads of State or Government a legally mandatory instrument incorporated in the Treaties or a solemn political declaration.