The time has come to review the procedure for electing the President of the Parliamentary Assembly. While all members are formally eligible to stand for the office, the outcome of the election is, in practice, often predetermined through informal arrangements between some political group leaders, at times excluding entire political groups from consideration. This stands in sharp contrast with the transparent and competitive procedures applied to the election of the (Deputy) Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the Secretary General of the Assembly, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, and the judges of the European Court of Human Rights. Candidates for these posts are subject to open scrutiny of their ideas and policies.
The Assembly should therefore invite the Committee on Rules, Ethics and Immunities to examine and report on ways to ensure a genuinely open, transparent, and democratic election of the President of the Assembly, in which all political groups and all members can participate on an equal footing.