27/11/2015 Standing Committee
The credentials of the new United Kingdom delegation to the Assembly were challenged on procedural grounds at the opening of PACE’s Standing Committee meeting today in Sofia.
Making the challenge, Andreas Gross (Switzerland), who heads the Assembly’s Socialist Group, said that three Conservative members of the UK Parliament had not been included, after the direct intervention of the Prime Minister, on the list submitted to PACE because they had not voted his way in a vote unrelated to the Parliamentary Assembly. With such a challenge, Mr Gross said he wanted to support the UK Parliament’s prerogatives against any unwarranted interference by the government.
The item has been referred to PACE’s Committee on Rules of Procedure, which should discuss the issue at its next meeting, on 10 December in Paris. The new British delegation will sit provisionally with the same rights as other members until the Assembly has reached a decision, but may not vote on its own credentials.
The Standing Committee, which acts on the Assembly's behalf between plenary sessions, is made up of the President and Vice-Presidents of the Assembly, the chairpersons of political groups, the chairpersons of national delegations and the committee chairpersons, totalling some 60 parliamentarians.