Media: Council of Europe paves way for possible lifting of sanctions against Russia
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe supported the draft decision to change the imposing of sanctions against countries that violate the Charter of the Organization. According to Ukrayinska Pravda, this decision allows Russia to return to the Council of Europe under an emergency procedure.
The Committee met in Strasbourg on Tuesday, May 14. According to sources, 39 of the 47 Member States supported the draft of Ministerial decision.
The central idea of the decision is to introduce a new type of sanctions procedure against the offending States. The document, which was adopted to start this process, does not mention "Russia."
According to journalists, the final decision will be made at the meeting of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Helsinki on Friday, May 17.
In June 2019 it will be two years since Russia stopped paying membership fees to the Council of Europe. Moscow's debt to the Council of Europe is now 60 million euros. Under the CoE Charter, a Member State may be disqualified if it fails to meet its financial obligations for two years.
Since 2015, the rights of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe are limited due to the annexation of Crimea — they do not have the right to vote, they are also suspended from work in the governing bodies of PACE.
At the same time, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin said, that the PACE member countries, which will support the resumption of the work of the Russian delegation in the organization without fulfilling the conditions, will be responsible for unraveling of the Minsk agreements.