The  autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe opens in  Strasbourg on Monday.

A joint debate on the humanitarian and political response to the migration and refugee crisis in Europe, the challenges for countries of transit, and the urgent need for a real European asylum system, with the intervention of the President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Laura Boldrini, will be among highlights of the session.

The Assembly will award the 2015 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize.

There will also be debates on public health and the interests of the pharmaceutical industry, freedom of religion and living together in a democratic society, the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the activities of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with the participation of its Secretary General Angel Gurría.

His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, as well as the Prime Minister of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic, and the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Denis Zvizdic, will address the parliamentarians.

The Assembly will elect its Secretary General for the five years to come.

Igor Crnadak, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, will address the parliamentarians in his role as Chair of the Committee of Ministers. Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland will answer questions from the parliamentarians.