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 of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Consequently, the Bureau decided to reset the list of deputies from countries that exceeded the new quota. Ukraine used to have four representatives in the regulatory committee that would develop mechanisms for lifting sanctions from Russia in PACE. Now, Ukraine has no seats on the committee at all.
“Now we have zero places in the regulatory committee and groups should propose new candidates,” said Volodymyr Ariev, Chairman of the Ukrainian delegation in PACE. He stated that it was “petty revenge for the position regarding the amendments to the regulations, [done] to please Russia.” Some other countries also lost their seats in the Committees because of the new rules.
Disagreements between Russia and PACE arose after Russia’s annexation of the Crimea in 2014. Russia was deprived of the right to vote in the Assembly and of the opportunity to participate in meetings of its statutory bodies.
In 2017, Russia suspended payments to PACE because of its non-participation. Its annual contribution had been €33 million. In October 2018, Russia stated that it would not return to the Organization until the rules were amended that deprived the national delegation of the right to vote during meetings. In January, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not rule out Russia's possible withdrawal from the Council of Europe in 2019.