Miscellaneous provisions
Miscellaneous provisions
Rule 74 Waiver
of the immunity of representatives and substitutes
74.1. Members of the Assembly enjoy
the privileges and immunities provided for in the General Agreement
on Privileges and Immunities of the Council of Europe (of 2 September 1949)
and its Additional Protocol (of 6 November 1952). These immunities
are granted in order to preserve the integrity of the Assembly and
to safeguard the independence of its members in exercising their
European office.
74.2. Any
request addressed to the President by a competent authority of a
member State for the waiver of immunity of a representative or substitute
shall be announced in a plenary sitting or Standing Committee meeting
and then referred to the Committee on Rules, Ethics and Immunities
(“the Rules Committee”).
74.3. The
Rules Committee shall immediately consider the request. It may issue
an opinion on the competence of the requesting authority and on
the formal admissibility of this request. It shall not make any
examination of the merits of the case in question. In particular,
the Rules Committee shall not, under any circumstances, pronounce
on the guilt or otherwise of the member, or on whether or not the
opinions or acts attributed to him or her justify prosecution. At
the earliest opportunity, it shall provide the member concerned
by the request, or another member of the Assembly representing the
member, with an opportunity to be heard. The member concerned may
submit any document which he or she deems relevant. The Rules Committee
may ask the competent national authorities to provide it with any
information and details it considers necessary to determine whether
or not immunity should be waived. The report of the Rules Committee
shall conclude with a draft resolution for the retention or the
waiver of immunity. No amendment to that decision will be admissible.
74.4. The report shall be the first
item of business of the Assembly on the first sitting day after
the report has been tabled. The debate on the report shall be confined
to arguments for or against the waiver of immunity. In the event
of the request to waive immunity relating to more than one accusation,
each of these may be the subject of a separate decision.
74.5. The President shall immediately
communicate the decision of the Assembly to the authority which
submitted the request.
74.6. In the event of a member of
the Assembly being arrested or deprived of freedom of movement in
supposed violation of their privileges and immunities, the President
of the Assembly may take the initiative of confirming the privileges
and immunities of the member concerned, where applicable following
consultation of the competent Assembly bodies. The President of
the Assembly may ask the competent national authorities to provide
any information and details considered necessary. A member or former
member may address a request to the President of the Assembly to
defend his or her immunity and privileges. At the request of the
President, the Bureau may, subject to ratification by the Assembly,
refer the case to the relevant committee.
74.7. When dealing with requests for the waiver of the
Council of Europe immunity, or with requests to defend the immunity
of an Assembly member, the competent Assembly organs shall interpret
the General Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Council
of Europe as follows:
74.7.a. Assembly
members (representatives and substitutes) are immune from prosecution,
arrest and deprivation of their free movement in the exercise of
their functions as Assembly members or when travelling on Assembly
business, whether this is inside or outside of their national territory.
If they are not active within this meaning or not travelling on
Assembly business, the national regime shall apply within their
country;
74.7.b. the terms “deprivation of
their free movement” include measures that contain administrative,
legal, judicial or other restrictions on an Assembly member’s free
movement and includes detention, house arrest, curfew, surrender
of passport and travel ban (whether an absolute travel prohibition
or a travel ban requiring judicial authorisation for travel). It
does not include a measure that explicitly allows travel in the
exercise of their functions as a member of the Assembly;
74.7.c. the terms “in the exercise
of their functions” include all official duties discharged by Assembly
members in the member States on the basis of a decision by a competent
Assembly body and, if necessary, with the consent of the appropriate
national authorities. It includes (but is not limited to) travel
to attend:
- Assembly
sessions (for all members of the Assembly);
- meetings of the Standing Committee
(for all members of the Assembly);
- meetings of the Presidential
Committee (for members of the Presidential Committee or those covering
for them);
- meetings of the Bureau of
the Assembly (for members of the Bureau or those covering for them);
- meetings of general committees,
ad hoc committees (including ad hoc committees on the observation
of elections), sub-committees and ad hoc sub-committees (for both full
members and, where applicable, alternate members of those committees
or sub-committees);
- meetings of networks, platforms
and alliances of the Assembly;
- travel on a mission as a rapporteur
of the Assembly;
- travel on a representative
mission on behalf of the Assembly or a committee;
74.7.d. in case of doubt, the Bureau
of the Assembly shall decide if Assembly members’ activities took
place in the exercise of their functions.
74.8. In cases where there are concerns
that the immunities and privileges protected under the General Agreement
in Privileges and Immunities have not been fully respected, the
President may make a statement during the next part-session. This
statement should note any recent interference with such privileges
and immunities, and, if necessary, may remind the competent authorities
of their obligations set out under the General Agreement on Privileges
and Immunities.
74.9. The guidelines on the scope
of parliamentary immunities enjoyed by members of the Parliamentary
Assembly shall be appended to these Rules of Procedure as a complementary text.
Rule 75Revision
of the Rules of Procedure
75.1. Motions
for resolutions to amend the Rules of Procedure must be supported
by twenty or more representatives or substitutes. They shall be
referred to the Committee on Rules, Ethics and Immunities which
shall report on them as provided by Rule 50
.
75.2. The Bureau
may request the Committee on Rules, Ethics and Immunities to report
on questions of interpretation or modification of the Rules of Procedure.
75.3. The
examination of the report of the committee shall be included in
the agenda in accordance with the provisions of Rule 27
.
