Doc. 12850

25 January 2012

The need to amend Article 27 of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly so as to establish German, Italian and Russian, which have hitherto been working languages, as official languages of the Assembly

Motion for a resolution

presented by Mr Graf and others

1.       Article 27 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliamentary Assembly establishes English and French as the official languages of the Assembly. The Rules further specify that German, Italian and Russian are simply “working languages”.

2.       As all Council of Europe documents are published in the two official languages only, many interested citizens of the member states are unable to keep abreast of political developments in the Assembly, let alone in committees.

3.       Thus, the fact that Russian and German, the languages most widely spoken in mainland Europe, are not official languages of the Council of Europe is particularly detrimental to the standing of the Council of Europe as an institution in its Russian or German-speaking member countries. The fact that German and Russian, as well as Italian, have hitherto been working languages of the Assembly, result in the claim to also establish them as official languages of the Assembly. Furthermore, this present situation creates a language barrier which severely limits the exchange of information between the Council of Europe and citizens, NGOs and businesses, despite the digital information and communications technology deployed, for example, in connection with the Council of Europe website “assembly.coe.int”.

4.       Increasing the number of official languages could also improve the effectiveness of individual members of the Assembly as there would no longer be any language barrier to prevent them from keeping their fellow citizens – and their counterparts in the national parliaments – informed of developments in the Assembly.

Signed (see overleaf)

Signed ^1:

GRAF Martin, Austria, NR

ABBASOV Aydin, Azerbaijan, SOC

ALIGRUDIĆ Miloš, Serbia, EPP/CD

BARBI Mario, Italy, ALDE

BENTON Joe, United Kingdom, SOC

BILOZIR Oksana, Ukraine, EPP/CD

BOCQUET Eric, France, NR

BRAUN Márton, Hungary, EPP/CD

BURYKINA Natalia, Russian Federation, EDG

CANEL Sylvia, Germany, ALDE

CARLONI Anna Maria, Italy, SOC

CHALOUPKA Otto, Czech Republic, EDG

CHERNYSHENKO Igor, Russian Federation, EDG

CORSINI Paolo, Italy, NR

CRISAFULLI Vladimiro, Italy, SOC

DEBONO GRECH Joseph, Malta, SOC

DONABAUER Karl, Austria, EPP/CD

DUMERY Daphné, Belgium, NR

FALZON Joseph, Malta, EPP/CD

FARINA Gianni, Italy, SOC

FEDOROV Valeriy, Russian Federation, EDG

FISCHER Axel E., Germany, EPP/CD

FOURNIER Bernard, France, EPP/CD

FRITZ Erich Georg, Germany, EPP/CD

GALATI Guiseppe, Italy, EPP/CD

GAUDI NAGY Tamás, Hungary, NR

HAGEN Christoph, Austria, NR

HAKL Karin, Austria, EPP/CD

HARANGOZÓ Gábor, Hungary, SOC

HARUTYUNYAN Davit, Armenia, EDG

HÖRSTER Joachim, Germany, EPP/CD

HÜBINGER Anette, Germany, EPP/CD

HÜBNER Johannes, Austria, NR

HUSEYNOV Rafael, Azerbaijan, ALDE

IORDACHE Florin, Romania, SOC

ISLAMI Kastriot, Albania, SOC

IVANJI Željko, Serbia, EPP/CD

JONICA Snežana, Montenegro, SOC

JOVANOVIĆ Nataša, Serbia, NR

KALMÁR Ferenc, Hungary, EPP/CD

KAPETANOVIĆ Nermina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, EPP/CD

KOSACHEV Konstantin, Russian Federation, EDG

KOVÁCS Elvira, Serbia, EPP/CD

KRARUP Marie, Denmark, EDG

KUBOVIČ Pavol, Slovak Republic, EPP/CD

LEIBRECHT Harald, Germany, ALDE

LEIGH Edward, United Kingdom, EDG

LEYDEN Terry, Ireland, ALDE

MAISSEN Theo, Switzerland, EPP/CD

MALGIERI Gennaro, Italy, EPP/CD

MARKOV Sergey, Russian Federation, EDG

MAYER Edgar, Austria, EPP/CD

MEALE Alan, United Kingdom, SOC

MELIKYAN Armen, Armenia, ALDE

MICHEL Jean-Pierre, France, SOC

MONTAG Jerzy, Germany, SOC

MORIAU Patrick, Belgium, SOC

MULARCZYK Arkadiusz, Poland, NR

MULARONI Pier Marino, San Marino, ALDE

MÜRI Felix, Switzerland, ALDE

NAGHDALYAN Hermine, Armenia, ALDE

NAGY Gábor Tamás, Hungary, EPP/CD

NEGELE Gebhard, Liechtenstein, EPP/CD

NESSA Pasquale, Italy, EPP/CD

NEUGEBAUER Fritz, Austria, EPP/CD

NICHOLSON Emma, United Kingdom, ALDE

NYKIEL Mirosława, Poland, EPP/CD

O'REILLY Joseph, Ireland, EPP/CD

O'SULLIVAN Maureen, Ireland, UEL

OTTAVIANI Nadia, San Marino, EPP/CD

PANŢIRU Tudor, Romania, SOC

PAPADIMITRIOU Elsa, Greece, EPP/CD

PIETERS Danny, Belgium, NR

PLOTNIKOV Oleksiy, Ukraine, SOC

POPESCU Ivan, Ukraine, SOC

POSTANJYAN Zaruhi, Armenia, EPP/CD

PYLYPENKO Volodymyr, Ukraine, EPP/CD

RADETA Vjerica, Serbia, NR

RECORDON Luc, Switzerland, SOC

REILLY Kathryn, Ireland, UEL

REIMANN Maximilian, Switzerland, ALDE

RÖRING Johannes, Germany, EPP/CD

RUSTAMYAN Armen, Armenia, SOC

SAKOVSKIS Aleksandrs, Latvia, SOC

SANNEN Ludo, Belgium, SOC

SANTINI Giacomo, Italy, EPP/CD

SCHÄDLER Leander, Liechtenstein, EPP/CD

SCHENK Martina, Austria, NR

SCHENNACH Stefan, Austria, SOC

SHERIDAN Jim, United Kingdom, SOC

SIEBERT Bernd, Germany, EPP/CD

SLUTSKY Leonid, Russian Federation, SOC

SPAHIĆ Ervin, Montenegro, SOC

STOLFI Fiorenzo, San Marino, SOC

STRENZ Karin, Germany, EPP/CD

STUCCHI Giacomo, Italy, EDG

SZABÓ Vilmos, Hungary, SOC

TODOROVIĆ Dragan, Serbia, NR

UMAKHANOV Ilyas, Russian Federation, EDG

VERCAMER Stefaan, Belgium, EPP/CD

VITALI Luigi, Italy, EPP/CD

VOLONTÈ Luca, Italy, EPP/CD

VUKČEVIĆ Zoran, Montenegro, SOC

VYATKIN Dmitry, Russian Federation, EDG

WADEPHUL Johann, Germany, EPP/CD

WERNER Katrin, Germany, UEL

WURM Gisela, Austria, SOC

ZAFFERANI Andrea, San Marino, ALDE

ZELLER Karl, Italy, EPP/CD

CHAGAF Ali Salem, Morocco

GUZMÁN SOTO Valentin, Mexico

JAIME CORREA José Luis, Mexico

KHADER Qais, Palestinian National Authority

OUKACHA Hassan, Morocco

SALHI Bassam, Palestinian National Authority

¹        EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party

      SOC: Socialist Group

      ALDE: Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group