23/01/2017 Session
The credentials of the new Slovak delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have been challenged on the opening day of the Assembly’s winter plenary session in Strasbourg on the grounds that it does not contain at least one Representative who is a member of “the under-represented sex”, as required by the Rules.
Making the challenge, Elena Centemero (Italy, EPP/CD) pointed out that national delegations should include women members at least in the same percentage as in their parliaments and, at a very minimum, at least one woman appointed as a Representative. “It’s an all male delegation,” she pointed out. As the Rules require, she was supported by at least ten members present in the Chamber, belonging to at least five national delegations.
The Assembly’s Rules Committee will now consider the matter, and the Assembly should reach a final decision later in the week. The members of the delegation may take their seats provisionally in the Assembly until then, with voting and speaking rights.
The Assembly, which meets four times a year in plenary session, brings together delegations from the national parliaments of all 47 Council of Europe member states.