Modification of the Assembly's Rules of Procedure

Resolution 2350 (2020)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 20 November 2020 (see Doc. 15179, report of the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs, rapporteur: Ms Ingjerd Schou).

1. The Parliamentary Assembly recalls that its actions and decisions shall be based on clear, consistent and effective parliamentary rules and procedures. It therefore intends to amend its Rules of Procedure where necessary to reflect the changes in parliamentary practice and to clarify the rules and procedures where their application or interpretation has raised difficulties.

2. In two successive resolutions, Resolution 2261 (2019) on the progress of the Assembly’s monitoring procedure (January-December 2018) and Resolution 2325 (2020) on the progress of the Assembly’s monitoring procedure (January-December 2019), the Assembly decided to modify its procedures for monitoring the obligations and commitments entered into by member States upon accession to the Council of Europe, in particular with a view to strengthening the periodic review procedure as a complementary mechanism to the monitoring procedure and the post-monitoring dialogue. However, full consistency and coherence of the terms of reference of the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee) with the general provisions of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure should be ensured.

3. Consequently, the Assembly decides to amend its Rules of Procedure as follows:

3.1 with regard to the procedures implemented by the Monitoring Committee, in order to ensure that a reference to the Monitoring Committee for report is validated by the Assembly when the committee prepares a periodic review report on member States’ compliance with their obligations, and to clarify the wording of the Monitoring Committee’s terms of reference:

3.1.1 amend paragraph 8 of the terms of reference of the Monitoring Committee, appended to Resolution 1115 (1997) on the setting up of an Assembly committee on the honouring of obligations and commitments by member states of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee) (as modified), as follows:

“The Monitoring Committee is seized, in accordance with Rule 26 of the Rules of Procedure, to carry out regular periodic reviews of the compliance of the obligations entered into upon their accession to the Council of Europe by member States that are not already under a full monitoring procedure or engaged in a post-monitoring dialogue. The order and frequency of these reports will be decided upon by the committee in accordance with its internal working methods based on substantive grounds, with the objective of producing, over time, periodic review reports on all member States.”;

3.1.2 amend paragraph 9 of the terms of reference of the Monitoring Committee, appended to Resolution 1115 (1997) (modified), as follows:

“The Monitoring Committee may be seized, in accordance with Rule 26 of the Rules of Procedure, to prepare a report on a cross-country thematic issue, in close co-operation with the relevant Assembly committees.”;

3.1.3 amend Resolution 1115 (1997) (modified) by deleting paragraphs 10 and 13.1;

3.2 with regard to the procedure for considering amendments in committee and in plenary sittings, in order to strengthen the competence of committees when taking a position on amendments tabled, after Rule 34.11, insert the following rule:

“Any amendment which has been rejected by the committee seized for report by a two-thirds majority of the votes cast shall not be put to the vote in plenary and shall be declared as definitively rejected, unless ten or more members of the Assembly object.”;

3.3 with regard to the procedures for electing the President and Vice-Presidents of the Assembly, which should be simplified and should now follow the Assembly’s ordinary election procedure:

3.3.1 replace Rules 15.2 and 15.3 by the following rule:

“If only one candidature is proposed to the Assembly, the candidate shall be declared elected without a ballot. When there are several candidates, the President shall be elected by secret ballot in accordance with Rules 40.11 and 41.b.”;

3.3.2 replace Rules 16.4 and 16.5 by the following rule:

“The candidates proposed by the national delegations shall be declared elected without a ballot. However, a vote shall be held by secret ballot in respect of one or several candidates in accordance with Rules 40.11 and 41.b, if so requested in the Chamber, at the moment when the candidatures are presented, by at least twenty representatives or substitutes. Where a candidate is not elected after the second ballot, that seat shall remain vacant until a candidate presented by the national delegation in accordance with Rule 16.3 obtains the requisite majority.”;

3.3.3 replace Rule 16.7 by the following rule:

“Vice-Presidents shall remain in office until the opening of the next ordinary session. A Vice-President shall be replaced in the course of the session when he or she is no longer a member of the Assembly, in the event of death, resignation or dismissal pursuant to Rule 54, or when the delegation to which they belong is renewed. A new Vice-President shall be elected, in accordance with the above provisions, at the opening of a part-session. In the order of precedence, he or she shall come after the Vice-Presidents previously elected.”;

3.3.4 in Rule 41.b, delete the words “subject to the provisions of Rules 15 and 16” and add the following footnote:

“When only one candidature is submitted to the Assembly, members are invited to indicate their choice by ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the ballot paper mentioning the name of the candidate.”;

3.4 with regard to candidatures for the bureaux of committees, in order to unify and clarify the conditions relating to candidatures for the office of chairperson or vice-chairperson of committees with regard to members who have already held such offices, amend Rule 46.7 as follows:

“The chairperson and the vice-chairpersons of a committee shall remain in office until the opening of the next ordinary session of the Assembly. They may be re-elected for one further term, consecutive or not. A committee chairperson or vice-chairperson elected in the course of a session for an incomplete term may be re-elected for two further terms.

A former chairperson of a committee may stand for the office of chairperson or vice-chairperson of the same committee on expiry of a period of four years, or of another committee on expiry of a period of two years, for two further terms, consecutive or not.

A former vice-chairperson of a committee may stand for the office of vice-chairperson of the same committee on expiry of a period of four years, or of another committee on expiry of a period of two years, for two further terms, consecutive or not.

A chairperson or vice-chairperson of a committee who has been dismissed from office pursuant to Rule 55 may not be a candidate for the office of chairperson or vice-chairperson of a committee or a sub-committee.”;

3.5 with regard to current affairs debates, in order to allow two debates to be held during a part-session or Standing Committee meeting:

3.5.1 in Rule 53.1, replace the words “The Assembly may hold only one current affairs debate in the course of a part-session on a subject matter which is not on the draft agenda” with the words:

“The Assembly may hold one or two current affairs debates on a subject matter which is not on the draft agenda of the part-session”;

3.5.2 in Rule 53.3, replace the sentence “The possible choice between several requests shall be made by the Bureau but it may decide not to propose any.” with:

“The Bureau of the Assembly may decide to accept only one request, to accept two requests or to reject all requests.”.

4. The Assembly decides that the amendments to the Rules of Procedure set out in this Resolution shall enter into force upon their adoption.