1. Introduction
1. On 26 January 2015, the Parliamentary Assembly referred
to the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional
Affairs, for report, the motion for a recommendation tabled by Mr
Denemeç and 48 other members of the Assembly on the allocation of
seats in the Parliamentary Assembly with respect to Turkey (
Doc. 13675), in which the signatories state that the Assembly should
“recommend that the Committee of Ministers fix at 18 the number
of seats in the Assembly to which Turkey is entitled and make the
necessary consequential amendment to Article 26 of the Statute of
the Council of Europe”, and “should accordingly also amend Article
28.3 of its Rules of Procedure to include the Turkish language among
its working languages”.
2. The purpose of the present report is to prepare the ground
for the Assembly’s discussion on these two points by providing some
clarification, firstly on the statutory provisions and regulations
governing the allocation of seats in the Assembly, and the practice
followed in recent decades, and secondly on the budgetary implications,
in particular the consequences of introducing a sixth working language
in the Assembly.
2. Increase
in the number of seats held by the Turkish delegation in the Parliamentary
Assembly
2.1. Reminder of the
current statutory provisions
3. Article 6 of the Council of Europe Statute (ETS No.
1) states that the Committee of Ministers determines the number
of Representatives in the Parliamentary Assembly to which the proposed
Member will be entitled and its proportionate financial contribution.
4. Article 26 of the Statute lists the member States and indicates
their corresponding number of seats in the Assembly, ranging from
2 to 18. No similar provision appears in the Assembly’s Rules of
Procedure.
5. The criteria for allocating seats are mentioned neither in
the Council of Europe Statute nor in the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure,
nor in any text of a para-regulatory nature. The principle of a
scale for the allocation of seats based on population was established
in the travaux préparatoires on
the Statute, in 1949. The scale itself, however, ranged from a minimum
of 3 seats to a maximum of 18 (between 1949 and 1978), before being
set at between a minimum of 2 seats and a maximum of 18 from 1979
onwards.
6. Only the Committee of Ministers is entitled to amend Article
26 of the Statute, either on its own initiative (after consulting
the Assembly)

or on the recommendation
of the Assembly (Article 41 of the Council of Europe Statute). The
Assembly has not taken any such initiative since 1977 (see below).
2.2. Historical and
regulatory considerations
7. The scale for the allocation of seats in the Assembly
among Council of Europe member States was fixed in 1949 on the basis,
inter alia, of the population figures
available at that time and having regard to certain general principles:
- capping of the total number
of seats;
- allocation of seats among delegations on the basis of
population, adjusted using the following criteria: maximum of 18
seats for the most populous countries; relative parity between the
most heavily populated countries and regional groups of countries;
relative parity of countries of comparable size within regional
groups; minimum of 3 seats per delegation (reduced to 2 in 1978
when Liechtenstein joined the Council of Europe).

8. There is no proportionality in this rule and the “number of
seats to population” ratio has naturally evolved in 65 years and
remains very approximate.
9. Some States have acquired one or two additional seats, by
means of an amendment to the Statute decided by the Committee of
Ministers (Resolution (51) 63 of 2 August 1951,

Resolution
(51) 76 of 23 November 1951

and Resolution
(78) 1 of 17 January 1978,

adopted
in response to Assembly
Recommendation
824 (1977)), and Article 26 of the Statute has been amended accordingly.
All these changes were made on the basis of the increase in populations
of countries concerned, at their request.
10. As regards the relevant general principles, Assembly
Recommendation 1247 (1994), paragraph 11, has para-regulatory force when it comes
to determining the number seats (“Delegations to the Parliamentary Assembly
should comprise a minimum of two and a maximum of eighteen members”).

11. In the past, steps have been taken to change the scale for
allocating seats in the Assembly for the benefit of one or more
member States, either when new member States joined, or to take
account of demographic growth in a given member State. In most cases,
it was the Parliamentary Assembly which requested that the Statute
be amended.
12. As regards the procedure for accession by new member States,
since 1965, it has been the Assembly which suggests to the Committee
of Ministers, in its opinion, the number of seats in the Assembly
which should be allocated to the new member State (see
Opinion 44 (1965) on the accession of Malta).

13. As far as taking account of demographic growth in one or more
member States is concerned, no such steps have been taken by the
Assembly for 37 years now. In 1977, in
Recommendation 824 (1977) concerning the allocation of seats in the Assembly among
member States, the Assembly, for the last time in its history, took
the decision to increase the number of seats of two delegations
only, the Turkish and Spanish ones, on the basis of “recent population
statistics” (the Assembly having considered at the time that Turkey
was manifestly under-represented, given the sizeable increase in
its population, and that Spain’s allocation likewise needed to be
adjusted).
14. At the time, the Assembly had declined to follow up the request
made by several of its members who, in a motion for a recommendation,
had invited the Committee of Ministers to undertake a comprehensive
review of the scale for the allocation of seats among member States,
according to the automatic criteria based on proportionality and
also their allocation in the light of updated population statistics
for all the member States.

15. Nor did the Assembly act on later motions on this subject,
including for example one presented by Mr Güner and others in 1992,
requesting that the number of seats allocated to Turkey be increased
to 18 (
Doc. 6691). This motion had been referred to the Ad hoc Committee
on the Revision of the Statute of the Council of Europe, for consideration
in the report being prepared at the time.

The
ad hoc committee then considered that no changes should be made
until the criteria governing the allocation of seats had been clearly defined.
2.3. Impact of increasing
the number of seats allocated to the Turkish parliamentary delegation on
the functioning of the Assembly
16. The request presented by Mr Denemeç and the members
of the Turkish delegation, supported by numerous colleagues, is
legitimate. As rapporteur, I consider that it would be just and
equitable to accede to this request. In 2014, Turkey had a population
of nearly 77 million. In 1977, when the number of seats allocated to
the Turkish delegation was last revalued and increased from 10 to
12, Turkey had a population of 40 million. In light of up-to-date
demographic statistics, the representativeness of the Turkish Parliament
within the Assembly is obviously underestimated, compared to Council
of Europe member States belonging to the same category:
- the delegations of the Russian
Federation (142 million inhabitants), Germany (81 million), France (66 million),
the United Kingdom (64 million) and Italy (61 million) hold 18 seats
in the Assembly;
- in addition to the Turkish delegation, the delegations
of Spain (46 million inhabitants), Ukraine (44 million) and Poland
(38 million) hold 12 seats in the Assembly.
17. Increasing the number of seats allocated to the Turkish parliamentary
delegation will automatically have the following effects, under
the existing regulations:
- increase
in the number of members of seven of the nine Assembly committees,
which will rise from 84 to 85 in the case of the Committee on Legal
Affairs and Human Rights, the Committee on Social Affairs, Health
and Sustainable Development, the Committee on Migration, Refugees
and Displaced Persons, the Committee on Culture, Science, Education
and Media and the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination,
and from 89 to 90 in the case of the Committee on Political Affairs
and Democracy and the Monitoring Committee;

- allocation of an Assembly permanent Vice-Presidency to
the Turkish delegation, and change in the system of rotating vice-presidencies
among the second group of parliamentary delegations.
18. The Rules of Procedure and the relevant para-regulatory texts
will therefore have to be amended accordingly.
19. In addition, the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy
will need to consider increasing the number of seats held by the
Turkish delegation in the enlarged Parliamentary Assembly and adopt
the appropriate amendments to these specific rules, in the context
of the next report on the activities of the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD), to be presented at the fourth
part-session of 2015.
3. Introduction of
a sixth language in the Parliamentary Assembly
20. From a regulatory point of view, there is no connection
between the number of seats held by a delegation in the Assembly
and the status of languages in the Assembly. The fact that a member
State’s delegation has 18 seats is of no relevance to the decision
to recognise that State’s language as one of the working languages of
the Assembly, and there would be nothing automatic about such recognition.
However, it is a matter of fact that the five working languages
in the Assembly are the languages of the five largest delegations
in the Assembly, and those of the States currently the main contributors
to the Council of Europe budget.
21. The committee therefore ought to consider this issue separately.

3.1. Regulatory considerations
22. Article 12 of the Council of Europe Statute states
that the official languages of the Organisation are English and
French. The Rules of Procedure of the Parliamentary Assembly expand
on this provision, and grant German, Italian and Russian the status
of “working languages” (Rule 28.3). It follows from the above-mentioned
provisions that:
- official documents
of the Assembly (Rule 24) are published in both official languages;
- speeches made at plenary sessions are simultaneously interpreted
into the five official and working languages (Rule 29);
- interpretation in committees is provided into the five
official and working languages (except in the case of the Committee
on the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights);
interpretation in sub-committees is limited to two languages (Rule
30);
- interpretation into other languages during part-sessions,
in plenary sittings and committee meetings is allowed and the related
costs are met by the national parliaments concerned.
3.2. Budgetary implications
23. It has already been estimated that introducing Turkish
as a working language in the Assembly during sessions and committee
meetings would require the Assembly to spend an additional €660 000
a year on interpretation.
24. In addition, and this is something that still needs to be
determined, there would be the costs involved in publishing records
of the debates in Turkish (along the lines of the existing arrangement
for statements made at plenary sittings in German and Italian),
or of translating adopted texts into Turkish (as is the case with Russian,
the Russian delegation having accepted in 1996 not to have records
of the debates in Russian), and which amount to an extra €40 000
or so per year.
25. It will also be observed that the language issue, and its
budgetary implications, affects not only the Parliamentary Assembly
but also the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities (see also
section 4 below).
3.3. Situation in other
interparliamentary assemblies
26. There are very few pan-European parliamentary assemblies
(far more common in Europe are sub-regional assemblies which organise
co-operation in specific fields between what are often neighbouring countries).
Interestingly, too, some organisations have been created along linguistic
lines (the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie, the Parliamentary
Assembly of Turkic-Speaking Countries).

- In the Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary
Union, all documents, including summary records of sittings, are
distributed in English and in French. Simultaneous interpretation
of debates is provided in both languages as well as in Arabic and
Spanish (Rule 37 of its Rules).
- The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security
and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) recognises six official languages
– English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish (Rule 28
of its Rules of Procedure) and provides interpretation of debates
and translation of documents in these six languages. The cost of
interpretation in any other language must be met by the members
concerned.
- The Parliamentary Assembly of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) (which consists of delegates from 39 of the
47 Council of Europe members) recognises only English and French
as official languages and provides interpretation of debates and
translation of documents in both of these languages (Article 49
of its Rules of Procedure). Any speaker wishing to use another language
is responsible for ensuring its interpretation into one of the official
languages.
- The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (16 of
whose members belong to the Council of Europe) recognises Arabic,
English and French as official languages (Rule 19 of its Rules of
Procedure).
- The recently created Parliamentary Assembly of the South-East
European Cooperation Process, which encompasses 12 Council of Europe
member States, has explicitly opted for a single official language, English.
- Lastly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the
Mediterranean (33 of whose members also belong to the Council of
Europe) has very detailed and somewhat complex provisions on the
recognition and use of languages (Rules 13 and 14 of its Rules of
Procedure).
4. Turkish Government’s
request to become a major contributor to the Council of Europe budget
and the procedure currently under way at Committee of Ministers
level
27. At the same time as the procedure initiated in the
Assembly with a view to increasing the number of seats held by the
Turkish delegation and having Turkish recognised as a working language
in the Assembly, an initiative has been launched at Committee of
Ministers level by the Turkish Government, in order that Turkey become
a major contributor to the Council’s budget from 1 January 2016.

It should be pointed out that the increase
in Turkey’s contribution to the Council of Europe budget is of no
relevance to the current budget but would affect the next biennial
budget 2016-2017.
28. It is important to note that there is no connection between
the status of “major contributor” to the Council of Europe budget
and the number of seats granted to the parliamentary delegation
of the State concerned,

and
that, broadly speaking, there is no statutory link between Article
38 of the Statute (which deals with the Council’s budget and States’
contributions) and Article 26.
29. Should Turkey become a major contributor to the Organisation’s
budget from 1 January 2016, its contribution would translate into
nearly €20 million in additional funding (including €15 million
for the ordinary budget).
30. The Committee of Ministers Rapporteur Group on Programme,
Budget and Administration (GR-PBA) has been asked to examine the
implications of including Turkey in the category of major contributors.
At its meeting on 19 March 2015, the following approach was adopted:
member States’ contributions would be maintained at their current
level, with a 7% rise in the overall sum due to the increase in
Turkey’s share.

The GR-PBA
also took into account the costs involved in allocating extra seats
in the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress of Local and Regional
Authorities (€35 000), as well as the budgetary impact on both assemblies of
(possibly) introducing a new working language (€900 000).
31. It will be observed, however, that introducing a sixth working
language will also necessitate alterations in some meeting rooms
(Council of Europe Office in Paris), the cost of which is not mentioned
in the GR-PBA documents.
32. The Assembly expressed its views on this subject in the opinion
that it submitted to the Committee of Ministers at its April 2015
part-session, on the budget and priorities of the Council of Europe
for the biennium 2016-2017. In the report approved by the Rules
Committee, the rapporteur, Mr Rudy Salles, believes that the increase
in the Turkish contribution must not lead to a reduction in the
amount contributed to the Organisation’s budgets by the other member
States. Pressure from certain member States wishing to use this
opportunity to reduce their own contributions to the Council’s budget
must not ultimately lead to the adoption of decisions detrimental
to the Organisation.

33. The Assembly must also make it clear to the Committee of Ministers
that, in its view, it is essential and only fair that the introduction
of Turkish as a working language in the Assembly be offset in its
budget by a corresponding increase in its funding, in the amount
of €700 000 per year,

on
a lasting basis.
34. The Committee of Ministers has not yet taken any formal decision
and is due to continue considering Turkey’s request to become a
major contributor in June, namely after this report has been discussed
by the Standing Committee.
5. Conclusion
35. Under Article 41 of the Council of Europe Statute,
the Parliamentary Assembly is entitled to request an amendment of
Article 26 of the Statute concerning the allocation of seats among
member States in the Assembly. No such initiative has been taken
by the Assembly since 1977. A motion for a recommendation, aimed
at increasing the number of seats held by the Turkish parliamentary
delegation, has been referred to the Rules Committee, for consideration.
36. In addition, the committee considered the question, which
is also raised in the said motion for a recommendation, of whether
a sixth working language should be introduced in the Assembly. This
issue has not only regulatory implications, in that an amendment
to the Rules of Procedure would be required, but also budgetary
ones.
37. The committee has therefore taken a stance on both issues.
Consequently, this report:
- includes
a draft recommendation asking the Committee of Ministers to amend
the Statute of the Council of Europe so as to increase the number
of seats allocated to the Turkish parliamentary delegation to 18 and
also to approve the Turkish Government’s request to become a major
contributor to the Organisation’s budget. Granting the request made
by the Turkish delegation for Turkish to be introduced as a working
language in the Assembly depends strictly on a decision by the Committee
of Ministers to allocate the Assembly the necessary budgetary funds
to offset the corresponding costs;
- also includes a draft resolution setting out in advance
the changes to the Rules of Procedure and the complementary texts
resulting from the increase in the Turkish delegation’s number of
seats to 18 (regarding membership of Assembly committees) and the
introduction of Turkish as a working language in the Assembly.
38. It must be made clear that the proposed changes depend very
closely on the subsequent decisions by the Committee of Ministers.
They will only be effective once the amendment to Article 26 of
the Statute of the Council of Europe has been approved by the Committee
of Ministers and the Certificate established by the Secretary General
has been transmitted to the governments of the member States (Article 41.d of the Statute). In addition,
Turkish as a working language in the Assembly is envisaged to be
introduced from January 2016, subject to an allocation being added
to the Assembly budget for 2016-2017 to cover the additional costs
arising from this decision.
39. Lastly, the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy’s
report on the activities of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) due to be presented at the fourth part-session
of 2015 will have to propose the necessary amendments to the rules
of procedure for enlarged debates of the Parliamentary Assembly
on the activities of the OECD so as to increase the Turkish delegation’s
number of seats in the enlarged Parliamentary Assembly (“Appendix”)
and introduce interpretation into Turkish (Section IV, “Use of languages
and documents”).