PARIS, July 3. /TASS/. President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Liliane Maury Pasquier has expressed regret over Ukraine’s decision to retract the invitation for the observers to monitor the parliamentary elections and reminded Kiev about the need to allow the Assembly to observe elections, the statement of the European organization’s President issued on Wednesday reads.
"Liliane Maury Pasquier, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), has expressed regret at the Ukrainian Parliament’s decision to withdraw its invitation to the Assembly to observe the 21 July early parliamentary elections," the communique reads. It also underlined a "long practice, going back to 1994, of working with Ukraine on the observation of elections, which had enabled "significant improvements" in the country’s legal framework and electoral practices."
"I have to highlight that Ukraine, as a member of the Council of Europe, is under the monitoring procedure of the Assembly and has the commitment to invite the Assembly to observe presidential and parliamentary elections," the statement quotes Pasquier as saying. She also added that she was ready to hold dialogue to improve relations between the Assembly, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukrainian Parliament, and the Ukrainian delegation to PACE.
On Tuesday, Rada speaker Andrey Parubiy retracted the invitation for PACE to send a observing mission to monitor the snap parliamentary elections following the return of the Russian delegation to the Assembly.
Ukraine’s PACE demarche
On Monday, the Verkhovna Rada’s Foreign Affairs Committee recommended to withdraw the invitation for PACE to observe the elections following the decision to reinstate the rights of the Russian delegation in the organization. The Committee also recommended the Verkhovna Rada to suspend the Ukrainian delegation’s participation the PACE’s work until Russia fulfils a number of conditions. The Committee members also put forward an idea that the further participation of the Ukrainian parliamentarians in PACE’s work be discussed with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
On June 26, the participants of the PACE summer session passed a resolution prepared by the monitoring committee, which confirmed the rights of the Russian delegation in full, all the proposed sanction amendments were declined. Chairman of the Unified European Left Group at PACE, Dutch representative Tiny Kox told reporters that Russia remains in PACE "as a full member, without any restrictions."
The Ukrainian delegation categorically opposed Russia’s return to the organization, as well as the Baltic States, Georgia and Poland. After the vote on Wednesday, the Ukrainian delegation walked out of the session, saying that the decision on the country’s future participation in PACE’s work will be made by the new convocation of the Verkhovna Rada.