Unanswered questions by the Committee of Ministers on Ms Savchenko and political prisoners in Azerbaijan

Reply to Written question | Doc. 14089 | 18 June 2016

Author(s):

Committee of Ministers

Origin

Adopted at the 1260th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (15 June 2016). 2016 - Third part-session

Reply to Written question

: Written question no. 707 (Doc. 14068)

1. The rules and procedure within the Committee of Ministers for answering written questions from members of the Parliamentary Assembly are set out in the iGuide on the Committee of Ministers’ procedures and working methods (accessible via this link: IX/1.5).

2. The Statute of the Council of Europe does not contain any specific provisions on the handling, by the Committee of Ministers, of replies to written questions from members of the Parliamentary Assembly. Under those circumstances, Article 19 of the Statute of the Council of Europe which covers statements by the Committee of Ministers to the Assembly, combined with Article 20 of the Statute, which provides that decisions on statements to the Assembly are taken unanimously, has always been applied to replies to written questions. This practice was reviewed and reconfirmed by the Deputies in 2008. [(1) Cf. CM/Del/Dec(2008)1015/1.6]

3. With regard to the written questions specifically mentioned by Mr Omtzigt, the Chair, in accordance with the procedure adopted by the Deputies, informed the President of the Parliamentary Assembly respectively in October 2014, February 2015 and September 2015 that, owing to a lack of consensus, it has not been possible to adopt replies to Written Questions No. 665, 666 and 678. [(2) Cf. CM/Del/Dec(2014)1210/3.2a, CM/Del/Dec(2015)1220/3.1h and CM/Del/Dec(2015)1234/3.1b respectively.]