Duration of the term of office of committee chairmen

Resolution 958 (1991)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

See Doc. 6394, report of the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Rapporteur : Mr Lord. Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 11 March 1991.

Thesaurus

1. The Assembly notes that, under the current provisions (Rule 45, paragraph 8, of its Rules of Procedure), the chairman of a committee ‘‘shall remain in office until the opening of the next ordinary session of the Assembly. He may be re-elected for three further terms, consecutive or not. However, a committee chairman elected in the course of a session for an incomplete term may be re-elected for four further terms''.

2. The Assembly also notes that its five political groups favour a reduction in the length of committee chairmanships to three years, particularly in view of the expected enlargement of the Council of Europe.

3. It believes that, while maintaining some continuity in the action and work of committees, such a measure would ensure an increased rotation in the chairmanship of committees.

4. Consequently, the Assembly decides :

4.1 to replace in paragraph 8 of Rule 45 of the Assembly's Rules of Procedure the words ‘‘three further terms'' by ‘‘two further terms'' and the words ‘‘may be re-elected for four further terms'' by ‘‘may be re-elected for three further terms'' ;

4.2 that these new rules will come into force at the opening of the 43rd Ordinary Session (22-26 April 1991), but will not be applied for committee chairmen elected before that date.