The Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs has been instructed to prepare proposals for changes to the 1956 Regulations on the election of the Secretary General and the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe and the Secretary General of the Assembly, following the adoption of Assembly Resolution 1665 (2009). Work conducted in parallel by the Committee of Ministers resulted in the drafting of a draft joint (Committee of Ministers/Parliamentary Assembly) interpretative statement on rules and procedures for the future elections of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The draft was approved by the Committee of Ministers on 13 January 2010 and transmitted to the Assembly.
The Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs therefore changed its approach and prepared comments on the draft statement. The committee recommends that the Assembly adopt the draft statement. It considers it important to clarify the process of consultation of the Assembly by the Committee of Ministers in the election process and to reinforce gender equality aspects. The committee also believes that more time must be foreseen for the whole election process and that there must be continuous consultations between the President of the Assembly and the Chair of the Committee of Ministers. Lastly, the committee considers that governments should present candidates for the post of Secretary General from a wide political background.
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Rules and procedures for the future elections of the Secretary General – Draft joint interpretative statement
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Having regard to the Statute of the Council of Europe, in particular Article 36.b;
Having regard to the Regulations relating to the appointment of the Secretary General, Deputy Secretary General and Secretary General of the Assembly having the rank of Deputy Secretary General which were adopted by the Committee of Ministers in 1956 with the agreement of the Assembly;
Having regard to the proposals for enhanced dialogue and co-operation between the Parliamentary Assembly and the Committee of Ministers, as they appear in document CM(2009)142 and Appendix to Parliamentary Assembly Doc. 12028 Part II;
1. The Committee of Ministers and the Assembly agreed that the rules for future elections of the Secretary General need to be clarified in respect of the consultation process between the Assembly and the Committee of Ministers and that the gender aspects need to be strengthened.
2. In accordance with Article 36.b of the Statute of the Council of Europe, the election of the Secretary General is a shared responsibility. It is the responsibility of the Committee of Ministers to draw up a list of candidates to be transmitted to the Assembly. It is the responsibility of the Assembly to elect the Secretary General from the candidates included in that list.
3. The criteria for determining the choice of candidates is set out in Article 2 of the Regulations relating to the appointment of the Secretary General. These are:
“a. The recruitment of persons of the highest ability and integrity and suitability for the post to be filled.
b. The qualifications and experience of persons already employed by the Council of Europe shall be taken into consideration, so that members of the Secretariat may have reasonable prospects of promotion.
c. The desirability of ensuring an equitable geographical allocation of appointments among nationals of the Member States subject to the overriding interests of efficiency. No office in the Secretariat shall be considered to be the prerogative of any particular Member State.”
In this connection, the Committee of Ministers will interpret the criteria of “highest ability and suitability” in particular by reference to the decision taken at the 117th Ministerial Session (Strasbourg, 10-11 May 2007) whereby the Committee of Ministers agreed to present to the Parliamentary Assembly “candidates who enjoy a high level of recognition, are well-known among their peers and the people of Europe, and have previously served as Heads of State or Government, or held senior ministerial office or similar status relevant to the post”. When assessing candidates against these criteria, the Committee of Ministers will have a merit based approach and use the appended competence framework it has prepared to that effect (cf. Appendix 2).
4. With a view to strengthening gender aspects, both organs will, taking into account their different responsibilities in the election process, strive to make gender equality a reality, in line with the declaration adopted by the Committee of Ministers at its 119th session in Madrid in May 2009. The Chair of the Committee of Ministers, when calling for candidatures, will strongly encourage member states to put forward candidatures of both sexes. Furthermore, and bearing in mind paragraph 3 above, when the Committee of Ministers draws up its recommendation to be transmitted to the Parliamentary Assembly, it will pay due regard to the desirability of ensuring an equitable gender balance of appointments.
5. In accordance with Article 4 of the Regulations relating to the appointment of the Secretary General, the Committee of Ministers shall consult the Assembly through the medium of the Joint Committee before transmitting the recommendation to the Assembly.
6. The Committee of Ministers shall seek the Assembly’s views before the Committee of Ministers draws up its recommendation. Therefore, consultation of the Assembly by the Committee of Ministers will take place at an early stage of the election procedure through the Joint Committee. It shall include a discussion on all the candidatures proposed by governments. The revised time frame, which is part of this statement, to accommodate this early consultation, is set out in Appendix 1.
7. After the consultation of the Assembly within the Joint Committee, the Committee of Ministers will decide on the list of candidates to be included in the recommendation to the Assembly, in accordance with its own procedures. This may include voting when drawing up the list of candidates. In this context, it is recalled that Article 20.d of the Statute of the Council of Europe applies to the adoption of the recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to the Assembly in the absence of a consensus.
For a mandate beginning on 1 October of year n:
If only one candidate appears in the Recommendation:
If the CM considers that no candidates are suitable to appear in the recommendation or if no agreement is reached in the Joint Committee on the submission of only one candidature in the recommendation:
The Secretary General is responsible to the Committee of Ministers for the work of the Secretariat and provides secretariat and other assistance to the Parliamentary Assembly. She/he represents the values of the Council of Europe to the outside at the highest levels and provides leadership to a culturally diverse Secretariat. The budgets of the Council of Europe amount to approximately €300 million in 2010.
a) To assess the “suitability for the post” (Regulations):
b) To assess “highest ability” (Regulations):
c) To assess “highest integrity” (Regulations)
“… both organs will, taking into account their different responsibilities in the election process, strive to make gender equality a reality, in line with the declaration adopted by the Committee of Ministers at its 119th Session in Madrid in May 2009.”
On 13 January 2010, the Ministers’ Deputies approved this proposal and integrated the relevant text into the draft joint interpretative statement. Therefore, this matter does not need to be pursued.
Furthermore, the Ministers’ Deputies had a clear wish to find a common understanding with the Assembly on the rules for future elections of the Secretary General.
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Reporting committee: Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs
Reference to committee: Bureau decision, Reference 3644 of 29 January 2010
Draft resolution unanimously adopted by the committee on 26 January 2010
Members of the committee: Mr Haibach (Chair), Mr Rowen (1st Vice-Chair), Mr Vareikis (2nd Vice-Chair), Mr Saar (3rd Vice-Chair), Mr Agius, Mrs Bemelmans-Videc, Mrs Brasseur, Mr Cebeci, Mr Chope, Mr Díaz Tejera, Mrs Err, Mr Greenway, Mr Gross, Mr Holovaty, Mr Huseynov, Mr Islami, Mr Kox, Mr Kumcuoğlu, Mrs Lilliehöök, Mrs Mendonça, Mrs Pernaska, Mr Rustamyan, Mr Van Overmeire, Mr Vis
NB: The names of the members who took part in the meeting are printed in bold
Secretariat of the committee: Mr Heinrich, Mrs Clamer