The Bureau, on the basis of a proposal by the SOC Group, appointed Mr Thomas Hammarberg (Sweden).
The Bureau, on the basis of a proposal by the UEL Group, appointed Ms Ioanneta Kavvadia (Greece).
The Assembly is invited to ratify these Bureau decisions.
The Bureau took note of the request tabled by the SOC, ALDE and UEL Groups and decided to recommend to the Assembly to hold a debate under urgent procedure on the report currently being prepared by the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy on Role and mission of the Parliamentary Assembly: main challenges for the future (Rapporteur: Mr Tiny Kox, Netherlands, UEL).
The Bureau took note of the request tabled by the Committee on Rules, Immunities and Institutional Affairs and decided to recommend to the Assembly not to hold a debate under urgent procedure on The budgetary crisis at the Council of Europe.
The Bureau took note of the request tabled by the EC Group and decided to recommend to the Assembly not to hold a current affairs debate on The relationship between the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the State Duma and the Council of the Federation of the Russian Federation.
The Bureau updated the draft agenda.
The Bureau took note of the report drawn up by the Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights following interviews with candidates for the posts of judges in respect of Malta and Turkey. This report had been already declassified by the Committee and submitted to the attention of all members of the Assembly (Doc. 14855 Add. 2).
The Bureau approved the Progress report (Doc. 14855).
The Bureau approved the report of the ad hoc committee.
The Bureau took note of the statement of the election observation mission and decided to ask the ad hoc committee in its initial composition to observe the second round of this election.
The Bureau took note of the invitation and decided not to observe these elections.
The Bureau took note of the communications by the President of the Assembly, the Secretary General and the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
The Bureau authorised Mr Jacques Maire (France, NR), rapporteur on Strengthening parliamentary dialogue with Algeria, to carry out a fact-finding visit to Algeria in 2019, in the framework of the preparation of his report.