Contents tagged with PACE

  • PACE deprives Ukraine of seats in the committee responsible for sanctions against Russia

    The Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe or PACE amended the rules for the formation of committees, effectively removing Ukraine from the committee responsible for lifting sanctions imposed by PACE against Russia, reported the correspondent of the Ukrainian news agency Evropeiska Pravda from Strasbourg.

    According to the new rules, there can be no more than two representatives of each Member State in the regulating committee and the committee on the election of judges …

  • Russia refuses to pay contributions to the Council of Europe

    After consultations with the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Liliane Maury Pasquier in Geneva, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy stated that Russia will not pay contributions to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe or PACE in 2019, TASS reports.

    "PACE will not receive Russian contributions. Russia is not going to buy tickets to a movie that we won’t watch,” Tolstoy stated. He also opposed the intentions of the Russian delegation to …

  • Ukrainian representative: PACE refuses to ensure return of Russian delegation

    The chairman of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE Volodymyr Aryev wrote on Facebook that at a PACE meeting in Helsinki, it was decided to abandon almost all changes to PACE regulations which Russia asked for in order to return to PACE .

    “The Council left only one point: in case a delegation’s right to vote is revoked, this does not apply to the election of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the judges of the ECHR (European Human Rights Court) and the Commissioner for Human Rights,” …

  • Lavrov warns that Russia may withdraw from European Council

    Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Channel Euronews that Russia would leave the Council of Europe on its own terms rather than give the Council the opportunity to exclude or expel Russia from its ranks.

    "I don't think that Russia's participation in the European Council is more important to Russia than it is to the Council itself. This is my strong position,” Lavrov stated. He explained that Moscow joined the Council of Europe to ensure “pan-European, …

  • Kremlin: Russia will no longer participate in PACE

    Russia chose to stop participating in the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council (PACE) because the Council postponed consideration of the resolution on the amendment of PACE regulations, said Vice Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Pyotr Tolstoy, Izvestia reports.

    “Why should we participate in this "blatant circus" with rubber gloves and listen to this slander about us?” asked the Russian official in outrage. Tolstoy said that the governing bodies of the European …

  • Secretary General of PACE: If Russia does not pay, it will be excluded from the statutory bodies

    Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland warned that Russia’s participation in statutory bodies would be terminated if it did not pay its contributions to the OSCE budget in 2019, Evropeyska Pravda reports.

    Jagland said that the Committee of Ministers can terminate Russia’s participation in the PACE and Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in accordance with the statute that imposes restrictions against the State that does not pay membership fees. Russia may …

  • PACE rejects plans to lift sanctions from Russia

    Evropeyskaya Pravda reported that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Bureau rejected the proposal to postpone a review of the “Russian question” at the current session.

    Another proposal consideration to amend the regulations should be conducted at this session. The main thesis of it is to make the renewal of sanctions against any member states as difficult as possible. These changes concern Russia, whose delegates will be able to return to work at PACE only after these …

  • Lithuania urges PACE not to restore the rights of the Russian delegation

    The Seimas of Lithuania adopted a resolution calling on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to avoid restoring the rights of the Russian delegation. As Delfi news agency reported, the document was adopted almost unanimously: 77 deputies voted in favor and one abstained.

    As Deputy Egidijus Vareikis presented his resolution, he reminded his colleagues that PACE had restricted the rights of the Russian delegation in 2014 after Russia had annexed the Crimea. The Russians …

  • Russia considers withdrawal from the Council of Europe

    At a meeting with Liliane Maury Pasquier, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said that the Russian Federation is seriously considering the withdrawal from the Council of Europe, TASS reports.

     “We have an internal decision to leave the Council of Europe. I am telling you this sincerely,” she told the head of the Assembly.

    Matviyenko said that the reason for this announcement was the ongoing crisis in the …

  • PACE adopts resolution calling on Russia to release Ukrainian political prisoners

    The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a draft resolution on June 28 in Strasbourg calling on Russia to release Ukrainian political prisoners, reported the TV channel 112 Ukraine.

    Seventy-seven PACE members voted in favor of the corresponding decision, while fifteen abstained. The relevant report was read out loud in the chamber prior to the vote; a debate on the topic was then held following the announcement.

    The resolution, which was prepared by the Commission on …