6 hours agoCouncil of Europe: Russia regains vote in Parliamentary Assembly
Periskopi(7 years ago)
(7 years ago)After hours of intense debate, 118 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) voted in favour of amending the regulation, paving the way for Russia to remain in the pan-European organisation. 62 members voted against and ten abstained. Despite fierce protests, especially by Ukraine's deputies, the Assembly bowed down to Russia's request. Moscow [...]
Moscow has repeatedly threatened the Council of Europe in recent months and has said it will leave this organisation in case the sanctions against 18 Russian members were continued, including attracting the right to vote. The new legislation, which has now been adopted, stipulates that the parliamentary assembly will no longer be able to impose sanctions unilaterally in the future, but only in consultation with the Committee of Ministers, which includes the foreign ministers of 47 Council of Europe countries.
This returns rights to the Russian delegation, as previously requested by Moscow. If Moscow has enough of these concessions, then Russian MPs can return to Strasbourg on Tuesday to participate in the organisation's new secretary-general vote Wednesday.
Boycott due to the Crimean annexation
Russian MPs boycott the works of the EC Parliamentary Assembly since April 2014, when they were denied the right to vote, due to Russia's annexation of Ukrainian Crime. They were exempted from top posts in Assembly as well as from several missions, such as election monitoring. In June 2017 Moscow suspended membership quota payments totaling about 33m euros a year, thus reducing the EC budget by 9 per cent.
The European Council with headquarters in Strasbourg, France, is the largest organisation of European continent states. It was created in 1949, four years after the end of World War II, and it numbers 47 members today. They are part of all European states, except Kosovo and Belarus. The latter is a membership candidate. Russia has been a member since 1996.
The EC Parliamentary Assembly consists of 318 delegates and meets four times a year in Strasbourg. Together with the European Court for Human Rights, it cherishes 830 million citizens of member states.
