At the same time, the Assembly expresses its concern about
developments and remaining shortcomings in a number of countries
under a monitoring procedure or engaged in a post-monitoring dialogue.
These shortcomings undermine the democratic consolidation in those
countries and are at odds with their obligations and accession commitments:
6.1 Albania: the continuing polarisation
between the main political parties as well as the parliamentary
boycott by the main opposition party, which have affected the reform
programme and have resulted in considerable delays in the implementation
of important reforms, including with regard to the judiciary;
6.2 Armenia: allegations of widespread vote buying and reports
of abuse of administrative resources during the 2017 parliamentary
elections; recurrent reports of disproportionate and excessive use
of force by the police, especially in the context of protests and
demonstrations, accompanied by a sense of impunity for such actions;
6.3 Azerbaijan: the lack of independence and impartiality
of, and interference by the executive in, the justice system; the
repressive actions against independent media; the lack of an independent,
impartial and effective system to investigate allegations of ill-treatment
by law-enforcement officials;
6.4 Bosnia and Herzegovina: the failure of the authorities
of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its parliamentary delegation to provide
comments on the preliminary draft report on the honouring of obligations
and commitments by Bosnia and Herzegovina, in violation of the country’s
obligation to co-operate with the Monitoring Committee; the continued
failure since 2009 to implement the judgments of the European Court
of Human Rights related to ethnic- and residency-based limitations
to the right to stand for elected offices; the continued failure
to address the issue of segregation along ethnic and religious lines
in education;
6.5 Georgia: the postponement of the introduction of a fully
proportional election system in the country until after the next
parliamentary elections, which undermined the possibility for a
broad political consensus on the constitutional amendments;
6.6 Russian Federation: the ongoing military aggression against
Ukraine in Donbas and the illegal occupation of the Autonomous Republic
of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol; the decision by the Constitutional
Court of the Russian Federation not to allow compensation of Yukos
shareholders as ordered by the European Court of Human Rights, in
violation of the obligation incumbent on all Council of Europe members
States to unconditionally honour the judgments of the Court; the
designation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses as an extremist organisation
by the Russian Supreme Court, underscoring the use of legislation
to fight extremism to curtail freedom of expression and assembly,
as well as freedom of worship, in the Russian Federation; the reports
of abductions, unlawful detentions, torture and killings of men
in the Chechen Republic based on their sexual orientation and gender
identity; and the continuing human rights violations in occupied
Crimea;
6.7 Serbia: the insufficient implementation of existing media
legislation, undermining balanced media coverage, especially in
the framework of elections;
6.8 Turkey: the undermining of the separation of powers and
independence of the judiciary, as well as a diminishing system of
checks and balances, as a result of the adoption of constitutional amendments
that are not in line with European standards and under conditions
that raise questions about the democratic nature of the process;
the lifting of immunity and pretrial detention of members of parliament;
the disproportionate effect of the emergency decree laws – including
the massive dismissals of civil servants, judges, prosecutors and
academics and the closing down of media and non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) – as well as limited access to judicial remedies; the repeated violations
of freedom of expression and freedom of the media and the situation
of local administrations in south-east Turkey, leading to a serious
deterioration of the functioning of democratic institutions;
6.9 Ukraine: the hardening of political discourse following
the Euromaidan events and the Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine,
and the polarisation of the media environment, leading to unacceptable attacks
on journalists and media outlets; the insufficient balance between
the official language and the languages of national minorities in
the new law on education in Ukraine, leading to a reduction in rights in
comparison to previous legislation; the pervasive corruption that
undermines public trust in the political and judicial system as
a whole; the lack of balanced composition of the Central Election
Committee according to the recommendations of the Council of Europe,
by proportional representation of all parliamentary political factions;
6.10 Bulgaria: the weak structure for accountability of the
prosecutor general and the frequent use of racist and xenophobic
language during the election campaign, as well as allegations of
vote buying and organised voting, especially among vulnerable groups
in Bulgarian society, during the 2017 parliamentary elections;
6.11 Montenegro: the continuing boycott of the parliament by
the opposition, which is hindering reforms; the concerns about the
state of freedom of expression and freedom of the media in the country;
6.12 “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”: the storming
of the parliament by protesters and the continuing ethnic divisions
in the country.
