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Recommendation 2153 (2019)
Role and mission of the Parliamentary Assembly: main challenges for the future
1. The Parliamentary Assembly refers
to its Resolution 2277
(2019) “Role and mission of the Assembly: main challenges
for the future” and notes that the Council of Europe, set up seventy
years ago to achieve a greater unity among its member States on
the basis of common values and principles, is today in a deep political
and financial crisis. It is confronted with many challenges which
seriously threaten the effectiveness of its statutory organs and
of its mechanisms and instruments, and thus ultimately the statutory
aims of the Organisation.
2. To face these challenges, promote security in Europe, reinvigorate
trust in the Council of Europe and among its member States, and
ensure the future of the Organisation, the Assembly calls on all
member States to reaffirm their commitment to the ideal of European
unity and the values and principles of democracy, human rights and
the rule of law; to support and further strengthen the Council of
Europe as a unique pan-European organisation which upholds these
values for the benefit of European citizens; and to consider all
available options to ensure the political relevance and financial
sustainability of the Organisation so as to avoid seriously undermining
its activities and thereby its effectiveness. It also encourages
in this respect ongoing discussions with the European Union about
the possibility of the latter making a non-earmarked contribution
to the Council of Europe’s work on the rule of law.
3. Considering that Council of Europe membership must imply an
obligation of all member States to participate in both statutory
organs, the Assembly calls on the Russian Federation, in accordance
with its statutory obligations, to appoint a delegation to the Assembly
and to resume obligatory payment of its contribution to the Organisation’s
budget, failure of which may lead to the suspension of its representation rights
in both statutory organs, should the Committee of Ministers decide
to apply Article 9 of the Statute of the Council of Europe (ETS
No. 1).
4. The Assembly calls for intensified dialogue among all actors
concerned in order to preserve the pan-European mission of the Council
of Europe and avoid a situation in which the biggest member State
would be asked to, or would choose to, leave the Organisation with
all the geopolitical implications and concrete consequences for
Russian citizens this would have. It welcomes in this respect the
commitment and efforts made by the Finnish Presidency of the Committee
of Ministers.
5. On the basis also of the findings of the Ad hoc Committee
of its Bureau on the role and mission of the Parliamentary Assembly,
which underlined the need to step up political dialogue between
the Assembly and the Committee of Ministers, while respecting each
other’s prerogatives, the Assembly:
5.1. welcomes the fact that contacts and dialogue with the
Committee of Ministers have significantly intensified recently,
at different levels and in different formats;
5.2. calls on the Committee of Ministers to ensure that its
replies to Assembly recommendations address fully and substantially
all issues raised and proposes to revive the practice of regular
exchanges of views between Committee of Ministers Rapporteur Groups
and Assembly rapporteurs and between Assembly committees and Chairpersons
of Committee of Ministers Rapporteur Groups or intergovernmental
experts during the drafting process of new Council of Europe conventions;
5.3. referring to its Recommendation
1999 (2012) on follow-up by the Committee of Ministers
to the work of the Parliamentary Assembly, reiterates the call it
made to the Chairs of the Committee of Ministers Rapporteur Groups
and working parties to maintain regular working relations with the Assembly’s
committee chairs, rapporteurs and general rapporteurs operating
in the relevant areas. A steady practice of holding an annual meeting
between a general rapporteur and the relevant rapporteur group could
be introduced;
5.4. referring also to its Resolution 2186 (2017) on the call
for a Council of Europe summit to reaffirm European unity and to
defend and promote democratic security in Europe, as well as to
the 1998 Committee of Wise Persons Final Report to the Committee
of Ministers, notes that there is an urgent need to develop synergies
and provide for joint action by the two statutory organs in order
to strengthen the Organisation’s ability to react more effectively
in situations where a member State violates its statutory obligations
or does not respect the fundamental principles and values upheld
by the Council of Europe;
5.5. asks the Committee of Ministers to consider its proposal
to put in place, in such situations, in addition, a joint response
procedure which could be triggered by either the Parliamentary Assembly,
the Committee of Ministers or the Secretary General and in which
all three of them would participate; this joint procedure could
consist of a step-by-step process, starting with the notification
of the member State concerned and including a number of concrete
and well-defined steps, such as co-ordinated dialogue with the State
concerned, the setting-up of a special monitoring procedure enhanced
by a joint task force, the publication of a public statement and
ultimately the decision to act under Articles 7, 8 or 9 of the Statute;
a strict time frame would have to be fixed for each step by common
agreement of the three parties; this joint procedure would ensure
enhanced legitimacy, credibility, impact, relevance and synergy
of the measures to be taken, both regarding the member State concerned
and within the Organisation, without prejudice to each organ’s existing
separate powers and responsibilities; political action could also
be combined, where appropriate, with technical support to the State
concerned;
5.6. with respect to member States’ contributions, asks the
Committee of Ministers to consult the Assembly by means of an ad
hoc urgent procedure if and when a member State has not made its
due contribution to the budget for a period in excess of six months;
5.7. calls for stronger and more structured co-ordination between
the monitoring activities of the two statutory organs, the Secretary
General and the Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as of the various
specialised monitoring and advisory bodies and mechanisms of the
Organisation, without prejudice to their independence.