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Federation Council to declare absence of grounds for renewing work in PACE

MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. The Federation Council plans to adopt the statement "On the situation linked to Russian participation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe" and state the absence of grounds for sending an application for participation in the Assembly’s work at the next session.

"In this situation the members of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation see no grounds for sending a corresponding application to confirm the powers of the Russian delegation in the PACE for the next session in 2019," according to the draft statement, a copy of which TASS has at its disposal.

The senators confirmed the readiness to continue a constructive dialogue with the national parliaments that are members of the PACE, as well as with the bodies and institutions of the Council of Europe, including the Parliamentary Assembly "for the benefit of returning the Council of Europe to the positions of an international organization which was initially founded based on the principles of full equity of its members and respect for common European democratic values."

Consultations with the PACE

On January 9, State Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoi reported that the State Duma received a letter from PACE Secretary General Wojciech Sawicki with a proposal to send a Russian delegation to the assembly’s winter session which starts on January 21 in Strasbourg. Chairman of the State Duma’s Committee for Foreign Affairs Leonid Slutsky added that in this regard the decision was made to hold expanded consultations involving the Russian Foreign Ministry, senators and representatives for all factions to develop a consolidated position on Russia’s further participation in the PACE’s operation.

After a meeting with PACE President Liliane Maury Pasquier on January 14, Chairman of the Federation Council’s Committee for Foreign Affairs Konstantin Kosachyov told TASS that the consultations were substantial and frank.

The State Duma Committee for Foreign Affairs suggested not sending a Russian delegation for participation in the PACE’s operation in 2019 at a session on Tuesday, as, Slutsky said, "there are no grounds for returning to the PACE." First Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Ivan Melnikov told journalists that the State Duma will study the draft statement on the participation of Russia’s delegation in the PACE session in 2019 at a plenary session on January 17.

Russia and the PACE

The Russian delegation in the PACE was deprived of the voting right in April 2014 due to events in Ukraine and Crimea’s reintegration with Russia. In 2015, the PACE twice studied the issue of restoring the Russian delegation’s powers, but sanctions were only tightened then. In response, the Russian delegation refused to work under such conditions, and in 2016-2018 it did not send an application to confirm its powers. Russia also suggested introducing the provisions to the PACE Rules of Procedure that no one has the right to strip parliamentary members of their rights save their voters.

On October 10, 2018, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland stated that Russia’s rights to be represented in the CoE statutory bodies (the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly) may be suspended starting from June 2019 for systematic non-payment of membership dues. In response, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Russia will leave the CoE itself if its opponents in this organization insist on Moscow’s expulsion.

On December 10, the PACE Rules Committee opposed the deprivation of national delegations of their right to take part in elections of the organization’s secretary general and judges for the European Court of Human Rights. However, Russian Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov stated that Russia is not satisfied with the partial restoration of its delegations’ rights in the PACE and expects "the full and unconditional restoration of all rights" of the delegation and "the development of such rules of procedure that would prevent any such actions on the part of the assembly’s majority in the future."