12/09/2008 Session
Strasbourg, 12.09.2008 – A group of twenty-four members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today submitted a request for the reconsideration of the previously ratified credentials of the Russian delegation to PACE “on substantive grounds”, ahead of the Assembly’s forthcoming plenary session in Strasbourg (29 September-3 October).
“Seriously concerned about the conflict opposing two member states of the Council of Europe in the , we the undersigned, demand the Assembly to reconsider – on the basis of Rule 9.1.a. of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly – the ratified credentials of the Russian delegation on the grounds of serious violations of the basic principles of the Council of Europe mentioned in the Preamble to the Statute,” the signatories write.
Article 9.1.a of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure says that “the Assembly may reconsider ratified credentials of a national delegation as a whole in the course of the same ordinary session […] on a motion for a resolution to annul ratification based on the grounds set out in Rule 8.2 […].”
Article 8.2 of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure says that “the substantive grounds on which credentials may be challenged are serious violation of the basic principles of the Council of Europe mentioned in Article 3 of, and the Preamble to, the Statute or persistent failure to honour obligations and commitments and lack of co-operation in the Assembly’s monitoring procedure”.
Under the Assembly’s procedure, on the first day of the session (Monday 29 September) the request is referred to the appropriate committee for report, to the Committee on Rules of Procedure for opinion and, if necessary, to other committees for opinion. The committee reports within twenty-four hours if possible, and the Assembly considers the report as soon as possible. The required majority is a majority of the votes cast.
Link to the text of the motion and list of signatories (HTML, PDF)
Link to the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly