Composition of the Standing Committee and the voting rights of political group chairmen in the Bureau and the Standing Committee

Resolution 1043 (1994)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 3 October 1994 (24th Sitting) (see Doc. 7084Doc. 7084, report of the Committee on the Rules of Procedure, Rapporteur: Sir Anthony Durant). Text adopted by the Assembly on 3 October 1994 (24th Sitting).

Thesaurus

1. The Parliamentary Assembly recalls its Resolution 975 (1991) which reinforced the Standing Committee's function of lightening the workload of the Assembly's plenary sessions by adopting texts on the latter's behalf.

2. It considers that the Standing Committee would better reflect the Assembly's composition if appointments to it were made on the basis of the number of seats allocated to each national delegation

3. The Assembly also stresses the valuable contribution made by political group chairmen to the Assembly's work, which would be further enhanced by giving them voting rights in the Bureau and on the Standing Committee.

4. Consequently, the Assembly decides to amend as follows its Rules of Procedure:

a To replace Rule 8 by the following text:

"Bureau of the Assembly

1. The Bureau shall consist of the President, the seventeen [(1) At its meeting on 28 June 1993 the Bureau of the Assembly approved the proposals from theCommittee on Rules of Procedure aiming at limiting in the first stage the Bureau's composition tofifteen members (including the President). This composition may be reviewed in due course,according to new accessions to the Council of Europe. See also Resolution 959 (1991).] Vice-Presidents of the Assembly and the chairmen (or their representatives) of the political groups. The delegation to which the President of the Assembly belongs may only propose an additional candidate to the Bureau if that delegation is in any case represented on the Bureau following application of the appointment system for the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly. [(2) See progress report of the Bureau and the Standing Committee, Doc. 6881, Appendix III, of whichthe Assembly took note on 28 June 1993.] This candidate shall be elected by the Assembly in accordance with Rule 9 of the Rules of Procedure. He/she shall speak and vote on behalf of his/her delegation. The President may, however, vote in the case of a draw.

2. The President and the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly shall be elected ..." [remainder unchanged];

b To alter the title of Rule 9 to read as follows: "Election of the President and Vice-Presidents";

c To replace Rule (41) 5 by the following text: "The chairmen of political groups or their representatives are ex officio members of the Bureau and the Standing Committee with voting rights.";

d To replace Rule 42 (2) by the following text:

2. In accordance with the procedure laid down in Rule 43 for the first seven general Assembly committees, each national delegation shall appoint its regular members and alternates to the Standing Committee. The President of the Assembly, who shall be Chairman of the committee, and the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly, who shall be vice-chairmen, shall be members ex officio. They shall be taken into consideration in the allocation of seats among the national delegations. The chairmen (or one of the vice-chairmen) of the general committees listed in Rule 43 (1) and the chairmen of the political groups (or their representatives) shall also be members ex officio, but shall not be taken into consideration in the allocation of seats among national delegations.";

e To replace in paragraphs 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9 of Rule 55a the words "enlarged Bureau" and "Bureau enlarged to include the chairmen of the political groups" by "Bureau".

5. The Assembly decides that the amended Rules shall enter into force at the opening of the Assembly's 1995 Session (January 1995).