Reform of the Parliamentary Assembly
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate
on 22 June 2011 (24th Sitting) (see Doc. 12627, report of the ad hoc
Committee on the Reform of the Parliamentary Assembly, rapporteur:
Mr Mignon). Text adopted by the Assembly on 22 June 2011 (24th Sitting).
- Thesaurus
1. The Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe is a unique interparliamentary assembly which can
pride itself on a number of achievements during its sixty years
of existence.
2. Looking to the future, the Assembly has decided that the time
has come to take stock of the current context in which it operates
and to reaffirm its mission. The continuing challenges and unresolved
conflicts in Europe and the events over the last few months in the
Middle East and northern Africa have been a reminder of the constant,
inspirational force of the fundamental values upheld by the Council
of Europe and its Assembly, namely democracy, human rights and the
rule of law. In addition, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe
himself, with the strong backing of the member states, embarked
on an ambitious programme of reform of the Organisation in October
2009.
3. The aim of the reform of the Assembly is to strengthen its
political relevance and effectiveness, to make it more visible and
to increase its members’ involvement. In addition, the objective
is also to reinforce the interaction between the Assembly and national
parliaments and to strengthen interparliamentary co-operation, including
with the European Parliament.
4. To this end, the Assembly has decided to take a number of
measures, ranging from policy actions, which imply a change of practice
but not necessarily a change of rules, to modifications of its working
methods and structures, which will imply a change to its Rules of
Procedure.
5. The Assembly therefore decides, as regards policy actions:
5.1 motions for a resolution or
a recommendation:
5.1.1 to use the four lines of action
adopted at the 3rd Summit of Heads of State and Government of the
Council of Europe held in Warsaw in May 2005 as selection criteria
for motions;
5.1.2 to allow committees to table motions under Rule 24.2 of
the Rules of Procedure and the Bureau to propose reports for debate
in the Assembly (constituting references), while at the same time
being more selective in the topics they propose;
5.1.3 to modify the requirements for tabling an application
to initiate a monitoring procedure, by requiring 20 signatories
belonging to 6 national delegations and 2 political groups;
5.1.4 to make explicit in the Rules of Procedure the various
options which committees have when a motion is referred to them
for information;
5.2 follow-up to adopted texts:
5.2.1 to allow rapporteurs
for reports, together with the relevant committee, to continue to
be seized for one year after the adoption of the text to ensure
its follow-up, and to report back to the committee at the end of
that period, as well as to proceed, when appropriate, in accordance
with the mechanism set out in
Resolution
1640 (2008) on use by Assembly members of their dual parliamentary
role – both national and European;
5.2.2 to invite committees to draw up an annual report on the
follow-up given to adopted texts by the national parliaments and/or
the Committee of Ministers and, where necessary, to make a public
statement when the follow-up is not satisfactory;
5.3 debates in the plenary Assembly:
5.3.1 to introduce
one “free debate” during each part-session;
5.3.2 to allow amendments to draft resolutions and/or recommendations
to be tabled together with explanatory notes;
5.4 grouping and long-term planning of committee meetings:
5.4.1 outside part-sessions, to group committee meetings during
periods of the year fixed a year in advance;
5.4.2 during part-sessions, to avoid as far as possible simultaneous
committee meetings involving the same members;
5.4.3 to invite the committees of the Assembly, except the Committee
on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States
of the Council of Europe and the Committee on Rules of Procedure,
Immunities and Institutional Affairs, to use their "annual ticket"
to organise a joint meeting with their counterpart committees in
the national parliaments of the member states;
5.5 Assembly communication tools: to review the Assembly’s
communication tools, in particular its website, with a view to making
them more user-friendly and interactive, and thus more useful to members
and to Europeans;
5.6 fundraising: to diversify the funding of the Assembly's
actions (other than statutory activities) and new initiatives through
external sources compatible with the values and principles of the
Council of Europe;
5.7 follow-up on structural issues regarding election observations:
to establish an advisory group on election observation, preferably
under the President and appointed by political groups, with the responsibility
of summing up and systematising structural experiences with other
international election observation institutions.
6. Furthermore, the Assembly decides, as concerns the modification
of its working methods and structures:
6.1 regarding the organisation of Assembly part-sessions,
to invite the Bureau of the Assembly:
6.1.1 to reduce the
maximum speaking time for members on the speakers’ lists to four minutes
or, where necessary, to three minutes;
6.1.2 in principle, to foresee a minimum of two hours for debates,
except current affairs debates, which remain limited to an hour
and a half;
6.1.3 in principle, not to cut any list of speakers and to seek
to ensure a fair geographical and political distribution;
6.1.4 to have committee meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
afternoons from 2 p.m. to 3.30 p.m.;
6.2 regarding substitutes and alternates: to eliminate the
requirement that committee chairpersons or vice-chairpersons must
be full members of the committee, not alternates;
6.3 regarding the Sub-Committee on the Election of Judges
to the European Court of Human Rights: to invite the sub-committee
to give positive reasons for its recommendation in favour of a given candidate;
6.4 regarding the committee structure:
6.4.1 to merge
the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development (AS/Ec), the Social, Health
and Family Affairs Committee (AS/Soc) and the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture
and Local and Regional Affairs (AS/Ena) into one Committee on Social
Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development (AS/CSD);
6.4.2 as a result, to transfer budgetary and financial matters
from the Committee AS/Ec to the Committee on Rules of Procedure,
Immunities and Institutional Affairs (AS/Pro), and the preparation
of the reports on the activities of the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development (EBRD) to the Political Affairs Committee (AS/Pol);
6.4.3 taking account of the new responsibilities of the Committee
AS/Pro, to nominate as ex officio members
the chairpersons of the Assembly’s five political groups and to
increase the number of members with a view to ensuring an equitable
geographical representation of members. With this in mind each member
state shall not have more than one member on this committee;
6.4.4 to transform the Committee on Equal Opportunities for
Women and Men (AS/Ega) into the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination
(AS/Ega);
6.4.5 as a result, to transfer issues relating to the rights
of national and other minorities and to discrimination on any ground
from the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights to the new
Committee AS/Ega;
6.4.6 to transfer the issue of population from the Committee
on Migration, Refugees and Population (AS/Mig) to the new Committee
on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development and, consequently,
to modify the title and the terms of reference of AS/Mig;
6.4.7 to limit each member of the Assembly to full membership
of two committees, with the exception of the committees whose members
are nominated by the political groups;
6.4.8 to prepare revised terms of reference for the following
eight general committees:
6.4.8.1 Political Affairs Committee
(AS/Pol);
6.4.8.2 Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights (AS/Jur);
6.4.8.3 Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
(AS/CSD);
6.4.8.4 Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons
(AS/Mig);
6.4.8.5 Committee on Culture, Science and Education (AS/Cult);
6.4.8.6 Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination (AS/Ega);
6.4.8.7 Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments
by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee)
(AS/Mon);
6.4.8.8 Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional
Affairs (AS/Pro).
7. The Assembly decides that the measures contained in this resolution
shall come into effect at the opening of the 2012 Ordinary Session
of the Assembly, on 23 January 2012. A separate report by the Committee
on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs will
be submitted to the Assembly or the Standing Committee in good time
before the opening of the 2012 Ordinary Session concerning the necessary modifications
of the Rules of Procedure, which shall include: revised terms of
reference of committees, including the implementation of the proposal
that the Assembly should be able to consider “deep security” issues, transitional
arrangements and recent issues relating to the interpretation of
the Rules such as committees' standing mandates and deadlines for
the preparation of reports. As regards standing mandates, it will
be necessary to give them a firm legal basis in the Rules.
