MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th December, 2018) Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Russian parliament's upper house, said Tuesday that new changes to the rules of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's (PACE) work were insufficient for the Russian delegation's return to the organization.
On Monday, PACE Committee on Rules of Procedure decided that the assembly could not unilaterally restrict the rights of members to participate in the election of senior officials of the Council of Europe, since this issue is regulated by statutory documents.
"For now, the measures proposed by PACE are insufficient for Russia to change its principle position on the inadmissibility of any forms of discrimination against any national delegations ... Such a partial solution of the problem, of course, does not suit anyone, including Russia," Matviyenko said.
According to the speaker, there is a legal opinion in which it is clearly stated that PACE should bring its documents in line with the charter of this pan-European organization, where it is clearly stated that all its members have equal rights and powers.
Matviyenko stressed that Russia would decide on membership in the Council of Europe in June 2019 only after the charter of equality for delegations would be changed and the decision allowing all states to work on equal terms would be made.
Relations between Russia and the Council of Europe deteriorated after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) deprived the Russian delegation of the right to vote following Crimea's reunification with Russia in 2014, which was not recognized by the international community. The Russian delegation at PACE has not been renewing its credentials ahead of the assembly's sessions since 2016 to protest against its discrimination within the organization. Tensions escalated further when Moscow announced that it had canceled part of its annual payment to the Council of Europe for 2017, demanding that the Russian delegation's rights be restored.
