MOSCOW, September 11. /TASS/. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will consider a report on the powers and voting rights of national delegations on October 9. The issue of amending the regulations to repeal PACE sanctions can be raised after the discussion, Head of Russia’s State Duma (lower house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky told reporters on Tuesday.
"The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will review a report on the powers and voting rights of national delegations on October 9. Practically, the entire day will be dedicated to the discussion of that issue. Petra De Sutter (Belgium) was appointed the rapporteur," he said.
According to Slutsky, a resolution and recommendations for the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers will be passed after the issue is considered. "Depending on their content, the issue of introducing amendments to the Assembly’s regulations on repealing the sanctions, which provide for stripping national delegations of their key rights, including the right to vote, could be raised during the autumn PACE session (on October 8-11)," he said.
He confirmed that based on the outcome of the discussion, Russia would finalize its stance on its future activities in the Assembly. "If the amendments are endorsed, Moscow can reconsider its stance on participating in PACE’s work. My personal opinion is that, if the sanctions articles are removed, Russia should resume its activities in the assembly and submit a request to this effect with the composition of its delegation in January 2019. If the main problem, which forced us to freeze our work in Strasbourg is ironed out, October 9 will be the moment of truth for future cooperation within that organization," Slutsky stressed.
According to the lawmaker, there is a sufficiently high probability of repealing the sanctions articles in PACE’s regulations, but the discussion is going to be acrimonious.
"Taking into account the position of PACE Speaker Liliane Maury Pasquier in favor of resolving the institutional crisis in the organization and other prominent parliamentarians in the Council of Europe’s six political groups, I believe that the probability of introducing such amendments (to the regulations) is pretty high," Slutsky said.
However, he did not rule out that "the discussion, especially with the participation of those delegations, which are antagonistic to Russia (from the Baltic states or Ukraine) would be fierce." "I do hope, however, that justice will triumph in PACE on that day," he concluded.
Russia and PACE
In April 2014, the Russian delegation to PACE was stripped of its key rights, including the right to vote and take part in the assembly’s governing bodies, following the developments in Ukraine and Crimea’s reunification with Russia. The issue of restoring the rights of the Russian delegation was raised at PACE twice throughout 2015 but the sanctions are still in place. Russia has been deprived of the right to vote and cannot take part in the Assembly’s governing bodies and election monitoring missions. In response, Russia suspended its participation in PACE’s activities until the end of 2015. In 2016-2017, Russia skipped PACE’s meetings due to the ongoing sanctions.
In late June 2017, Russia said it was suspending its monetary contributions to the Council of Europe over its non-participation in PACE. Concurrently, it suggested PACE’s regulations be amended to ensure that no one could deprive lawmakers of their rights except their voters. On January 11, Slutsky said that Russia would not submit an application to confirm the Russian delegation’s powers for 2018.