23/10/2025 Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs
At its meeting on 1 October, the Committee on Rules, Ethics, and Immunities proposed amending the code of conduct for PACE members (contained in Appendix II to the Rules of Procedure) in order to have transparent and clear processes for identifying and managing conflicts of interest. “The establishment of an adequate conflicts-of-interest management system within PACE is vital for maintaining public trust in the institutions and ensuring the credibility of its actions,” the parliamentarians emphasised.
Adopting unanimously a draft resolution based on the report by Sergiy Vlasenko (Ukraine, EPP/CD), the committee recommended: clarifying what constitutes a “conflict of interest”; providing “clear guidance for identifying potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest” and for suggesting ways of managing them; and simplifying “the language of the code of conduct” to avoid repetitions between the general principles and the rules of conduct.
Furthermore, the committee considered that it would be useful to designate a person whose confidential advice members could seek for identifying and managing conflicts of interest. In this regard, it underlined that the Council of Europe Ethics Officer had the relevant expertise and independence for this role.