Having regard to the above considerations, the Assembly decides
to amend its Rules of Procedure as follows:
2.1 with regard to the procedure for examining amendments
in a plenary sitting:
2.1.1 modify Rule 34.7.
a by adding the following sentence
after the first sentence:
“The
President chairing a sitting shall strictly interpret Rule 34.7.a
on the consideration of oral amendments.”;
2.1.2 modify Rule 34.9 by adding the following sentence after
the first sentence:
“If a committee
has not been able to take a position on amendments to its report
that have been tabled, the floor shall be given to the rapporteur.”;
2.1.3 in order to strengthen the competence of committees when
taking a position on amendments tabled, amend the first sentence
of Rule 34.11 as follows:
“Following
a proposal presented by the chairperson of the committee seized
for report, amendments which have been unanimously approved by the
committee shall be declared as adopted by the Assembly, unless ten
or more members of the Assembly object.”;
2.2 with regard to the speaking time in plenary sittings:
2.2.1 as regards the speaking time of rapporteurs, in the complementary
texts “Additional provisions relating to Assembly debates”, modify
paragraph 2 and paragraph 3 of “iv. Speaking time” as follows:
“2. Rapporteurs shall have a total
of ten minutes, of which, indicatively, seven minutes for the presentation
of the report and three minutes for the reply at the end of the
debate. The co-rapporteurs of the Monitoring Committee shall have
five minutes each to present their report and five minutes to reply,
to be shared between them.
Rapporteurs may, after the first round of speakers on
behalf of the political groups, request the floor to reply; this
speaking time shall be deducted from the time of reply at the end
of the debate.
3. Rapporteurs for opinion shall have the same speaking
time to present the opinion as the speakers registered for the debate
concerned. Rapporteurs of the Bureau ad hoc committees on the observation
of elections shall have five minutes to present the report.”;
2.2.2 as regards current affairs debates, in order to harmonise
speaking time for statements with that laid down in other provisions,
amend Rule 53.4, as follows:
“A
current affairs debate may not exceed one and a half hours. It shall
be opened by a member chosen by the Bureau, who shall have a total
of ten minutes, of which, indicatively, seven minutes for the introduction
of the debate and three minutes for the reply at the end of the
debate.”;
2.2.3 as regards questions of procedure, in order to harmonise
the speaking time with that laid down in other provisions, in Rule
35.7, replace the words “not more than two minutes” by “not more than 30 seconds”;
2.3 with regard to the notification of substitutes, replace
Rule 40.1 with the following sub-paragraph:
“Only those representatives or, in their absence, the
substitutes duly designated by the national delegation not later
than 24 hours before the debate concerned, who have signed the register
of attendance, shall be entitled to vote.”;
2.4 with regard to the threshold for the formation of a political
group:
2.4.1 in Rule 19.2, replace the words “28 members”,
by the words “26 members”;
2.4.2 in Rule 19.4, after the words “in Rule 19.2”, add the
words “on the date of 30 June, or which has fewer than 20 members
for a period of three successive months”;
2.4.3 in Rule 19.7, after the words “as a reference date”, add
the words “to verify that the conditions stipulated in Rule 19.2
are met, as well as”;
2.5 with regard to the content of text proposals and written
declarations tabled by members, replace the last sentence of Rule
25.2 and the second sentence of Rule 56.2 with the following sentence:
“They shall also address areas
falling within the Council of Europe’s sphere of competence and shall
not contain racist, xenophobic or intolerant language or words and
expressions whose meaning constitutes an affront to human dignity.”;
2.6 with regard to the possibility for several members to
table a written question to the Committee of Ministers:
2.6.1 in
Rule 61.1, replace the first sentence with the following sentence:
“Representatives and substitutes
or several representatives and/or substitutes may at any time address
to the Committee of Ministers, or to its Chairperson-in-office,
written questions that have a bearing on matters within the competence
of the Committee of Ministers.”;
2.6.2 in Rule 61.2, replace the sentence “Representatives and
substitutes may also submit written questions.” with the following
sentence:
“Representatives and
substitutes or several representatives and/or substitutes may also submit
written questions.”;
2.7 with regard to the bureaux of committees, in Rule 46.3,
add the following words at the end of the second sentence: “only if the candidature respects the agreement
reached”, and a
new sentence as follows: “If it proves
impossible to reach an agreement by consensus, the agreement should
be obtained among the political groups by a qualified majority of
two thirds.”;
2.8 in order to clarify the committee decisions subjected
to quorum requirements, after Rule 47.3, add the following new sub-paragraph:
“47.4. A committee with 81 or 85
seats may adopt a motion for a recommendation or resolution with
no fewer than 20 members voting in favour of the motion; a committee
with fewer seats shall adopt motions for recommendations or resolutions
with the requisite quorum as defined in Rule 47.3. Declarations
by committees shall be adopted with the requisite quorum as defined
in Rule 47.3.”;
2.9 with regard to references to committees, at the end of
Rule 26.3, add the following sentence: “If a draft report adopted
by a committee proposes any amendments to the European Convention
on Human Rights, the Bureau shall request an opinion from the Committee
on Legal Affairs and Human Rights on this draft report.”;
2.10 with regard to reports prepared under the urgent procedure,
the first sentence of Rule 50.4 should be amended by adding, after
the word “rapporteur”, the words “, except
when prepared under the urgent procedure”.
