22/01/2024 Session
The credentials of the German delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have been challenged on procedural grounds on the opening day of the 2024 winter plenary session.
Making the challenge, Ian Liddell-Grainger (United Kingdom, EC/DA) said that the new proposed delegation did not reflect the political balance in the German Parliament. He was supported by at least ten members of the Assembly, belonging to at least five national delegations, as required by the Rules.
The challenge was immediately referred to the Rules Committee for report. Under the Rules, the committee must propose one of three options: to ratify the credentials, not to ratify them, or to ratify them “together with depriving or suspending the exercise of some of the rights of participation or representation of members of the delegation concerned in the activities of the Assembly and its bodies”. If either of the last two proposals, the Assembly will debate and vote on them on the evening of Wednesday 24 January.
The members of the German delegation may sit provisionally with the same rights as other Assembly members until the Assembly has reached a decision, but shall not vote in any proceedings relating to the examination of their credentials.