Modification of the Assembly's Rules of Procedure
- 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.”;
3.2 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.
