BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th April, 2019) Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland has urged for restoring Russia's voting rights in the 47-member council to prevent Moscow from quitting and so creating a new "dividing line" in Europe.
Speaking to the Norwegian news agency NTB on Sunday, Jagland, who has led the institution for 10 years, said the Council of Europe was "the only place where Russia is connected to Europe in a binding judicial way."
"We will see a different Russia. We will have a new dividing line in Europe. We should not underestimate the negative consequences, especially if we combine it with Brexit for the EU. We could have two developments that could really shake up Europe," Jagland said as quoted by the Financial Times newspaper.
Earlier on Monday, however, PACE, which started its five-day spring session, turned down the request to hold a current affairs debate on the relationship between PACE and the lower and upper houses of the Russian parliament, State Duma and the Federation Council.
PACE SECRETARY GENERAL TRYING TO FIND SOLUTION
The Russian delegation walked out of PACE chamber in early 2014 after the assembly stripped it of voting rights in response to a referendum in Crimea, in which the absolute majority voted in favor of reuniting with Russia.
Since 2016, the Russian delegation has not been renewing its credentials ahead of the assembly's sessions in protest of the discrimination it faced within the organization. In 2017, Russia refused to pay PACE membership fees, causing it serious financial problems.
In his recent report, called "Ready for Future Challenges - Reinforcing the Council of Europe," Jagland stressed the need to resolve the "impasse" over the participation of Russia in the council's parliamentary assembly. According to Jagland, the current situation is harmful to the Council of Europe's convention system and makes millions of European citizens suffer as a result.
Jagland proposed a number of principles as a basis for finding a solution to the ongoing difficulties. They include the obligation of member states to cooperate with the Council of Europe "in good faith" and to pay their financial contributions on time as well as upholding the rights and obligations of all member countries to fully participate in the council's two statutory bodies, the committee of ministers and PACE.
Commenting on Jagland's statement that Russia should have its voting rights restored, French former top civil servant Jean-Paul Baquiast told Sputnik that it marked "the growing feeling among European states that Russia is a European state and should be treated as such."
"However, we must not delude ourselves. The common sense declaration of the secretary general of the European Council will not change much the anti-Russian phobia imposed by Washington on its docile allies on the European continent," Baquiast stressed.
In his interview with Euronews in last October, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he did not think that Russia's participation in the Council of Europe is more important for Moscow than for the European countries, stressing that "if they want to push Russia out of the Council of Europe, we won't give them the pleasure; we will leave the organization ourselves."
Addressing PACE during the January session, Jagland stated that Russian people would suffer most if Moscow left the Council of Europe as they would lose protection under the council's convention system.
Sputnik spoke to a number of experts, who warned that the so-called Ruxit would be of a great loss for both sides and the international situation in general.
"Beyond the inevitable social plan that the departure of Russia would bring, a 'Ruxit' would be a diplomatic and democratic catastrophe. Not only would it be the closing of one of the few existing channels between Western Europe and Russia at a moment of tension between NATO and Russia, when it is very much needed, but it would also deprive Russian citizens of the protection of the European Court of Human Rights," Michel Liegeois, the political scientist and professor at Belgium's UCLouvain University, said.
He stressed that the loss of the Russian contribution meant that 250 jobs were at risk at the Council of Europe, calling it a major "collateral damage" for the institution.
Brussels-based military expert Pierre Henrot expressed similar views by saying that Russia's withdrawal from the Council of Europe would be a blow to the credibility of the organization.
"It will mean the disappearance of a cenacle where high caliber politicians talked to each other. If you add to it the increasing warmongering by NATO, peace in Europe could very well be at danger if this continues. Russia should have its voting rights restored," Henrot noted.
Others, like Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, a European Parliament member from France's National Rally party, stressed the important role of Russia as "a bridge and a counterweight in the relations between Europe and China."
"It is necessary to transform the institutions of the European Union but also of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The alliance must be based on sovereignty and the use of human rights for political ends must stop. We must end the European Court of Human Rights as constituted," he suggested.
According to Liegeois, these views, however, stand in stark contrast to those usually expressed by such countries as Ukraine, the Baltic States and Poland, which he said were the "most virulent countries" toward Russia.
At the meeting with PACE President Liliane Maury Pasquier last September, Russian upper house speaker Valentina Matviyenko said Russia was considering the possibility of leaving the Council of Europe, stressing that the sides had been negotiating for four years, "and everything is at a dead point."
