Rules of Procedure of the Assembly (January 2023)

(Resolution 1202 (1999) adopted on 4 November 1999) with subsequent modifications of the Rules of Procedure* 

Honouring of obligations and commitments by member states of the Council of Europe Retour au sommaire Atteindre l'élement suivant Atteindre l'élement précédent

Honouring of obligations and commitments by member states of the Council of Europe

i. - Resolution 1115 (1997)

on the setting up of an Assembly committee on the honouring of obligations and commitments by member states of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee) (as modified by Resolutions 1431 (2005), 1515 (2006), 1698 (2009), 1710 (2010), 1936 (2013), 2018 (2014), 2261 (2019) and 2325 (2020))

1. The Parliamentary Assembly stresses that it is important for the Council of Europe to ensure full compliance with the undertakings made by all its member states, in a spirit of co-operation and non-discrimination.
2. At present the Assembly procedure for monitoring the obligations and commitments of member states is governed by Order No. 508 (1995).
3. It emphasises that several general committees are competent for many questions relating to member states’ obligations and commitments and that the monitoring procedure established by Order No. 508 has created a considerable workload for the committees concerned.
4. It therefore decides to constitute an Assembly committee on the honouring of obligations and commitments by member states of the Council of Europe (“Monitoring Committee”).
5. The Monitoring Committee shall be responsible for verifying the fulfilment of the obligations assumed by the member states under the terms of the Council of Europe Statute, the European Convention on Human Rights and all other Council of Europe conventions to which they are parties, as well as the honouring of the commitments entered into by the authorities of member states upon their accession to the Council of Europe.
6. This committee, whose terms of reference are appended, shall be composed of sixty-five (at present 85) members of the Assembly and of the chairpersons of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy and the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. In derogation of Rule 44.5. , there shall be no alternates for the committee.
7. Nominations shall be drawn up by the political groups of the Assembly and addressed to the President of the Assembly who shall submit them to the Bureau. To enable the Bureau to arrive at the desired balance in drawing up the final list, more names can be proposed than the number of places on the list.
8. On the basis of the list of candidates, the Bureau shall appoint the sixty-five (currently 85) members by applying the apportionment ratio based on the so-called “D’Hondt principle”. The Bureau shall also aim at ensuring a regional balance. Not more than two members of a national delegation from a state under monitoring procedure or involved in a post-monitoring dialogue may sit on the Monitoring Committee. The political groups are invited to ensure that no more than four members of the same national delegation of a country not under a monitoring procedure or involved in a post-monitoring dialogue sit on the Monitoring Committee. The appointments shall be submitted to the Assembly for ratification.
9. In line with Rule 50.1. , unless otherwise specified, the Monitoring Committee shall appoint two rapporteurs, from different countries and political groups, to prepare country-specific reports on the honouring of obligations and commitments, reports on the functioning of democratic institutions, reports on the post-monitoring dialogue and reports on periodic reviews.
10. When a monitoring procedure is initiated, two members of the parliamentary delegation of the member state concerned (to represent the governing majority and the opposition) shall be invited to take part, without the right to vote, in the relevant debates of the committee unless one or both are already represented on the committee. By analogy with Rule 6, paragraph 8 (now Rule 10 ), no member of the parliamentary delegation of the member state concerned shall participate in a vote on any question concerning this state.
11.1. The Monitoring Committee shall appoint two of its members co-rapporteurs in respect of each member state for which a monitoring procedure is initiated. Without prejudice to Rule 50.1. of the Rules of Procedure, the co-rapporteurs shall be appointed on the basis of the following criteria:
— no co-rapporteur shall deal with more than one state at the same time;
— no co-rapporteur shall belong to a neighbouring state or to a state with a special relationship with the state being monitored;
— the two co-rapporteurs shall come from different countries and belong to different political groups.
11.2. In respect of each member state under monitoring, the co-rapporteurs shall be appointed for no longer than five years. No member of the committee may be re-appointed co-rapporteur for a given state under the monitoring procedure within five years of the end of his or her previous term of office for the same state.
11.3. As far as possible, the committee should avoid replacing at the same time both co-rapporteurs engaged in a monitoring procedure with respect to a given state.
11.4. In the interest of the smooth running of the monitoring procedure, the committee may decide to extend, where appropriate and feasible, the term of office of one of the co-rapporteurs by a maximum of six months, in particular, in order to enable the latter to present a report which has already been included in the agenda of an Assembly part session.
12.1. The term of office of the co-rapporteurs for post-monitoring dialogue shall be no longer than five years. No member who was previously engaged in the monitoring procedure with respect to a given state may be appointed co-rapporteur on the post-monitoring dialogue with the same state unless the Monitoring Committee decides otherwise.
12.2. No member of the committee may be re-appointed co-rapporteur for a given state engaged in post-monitoring dialogue within five years of the end of his or her previous term of office for dialogue with the same state.
12.3. In the interest of the smooth running of the post-monitoring dialogue, the committee may decide to extend, where appropriate and feasible, the term of office of a corapporteur by a maximum of six months, in order to enable the latter to present a report which has already been included in the agenda and order of business of an Assembly part session.
13. The Assembly may penalise persistent failure to honour obligations and commitments accepted, and lack of co-operation in its monitoring process, by adopting a resolution and/or a recommendation, by the non-ratification of the credentials of a national parliamentary delegation at the beginning of its next ordinary session or by the annulment of ratified credentials in the course of the same ordinary session in accordance with Rule 6 (now Rules 6 to 10) of the Rules of Procedure. Should the member state continue not to respect its commitments, the Assembly may address a recommendation to the Committee of Ministers requesting it to take the appropriate action in accordance with Articles 8 and 9 of the Statute of the Council of Europe.
14. The Assembly instructs the Monitoring Committee to report to it once a year on the general progress of the monitoring procedures.
15. The Assembly also decides to amend as follows its Rules of Procedure:

i. in Rule 43 (now Rule 44 ), at the end of paragraph 1, to add the following text:

“Committee on the honouring of obligations and commitments by member states of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee) (number of seats: 65 )”;

ii. in Rule 43(now Rule 44 ), after paragraph 2, to add the following new paragraph:

“3. In accordance with Resolution 1115 (1997), the Assembly shall set up a committee on the honouring of obligations and commitments by member states of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee).”

16. This resolution abrogates Order No. 508. It shall enter into force on the last day of the second part of the Assembly 1997 Ordinary Session (25 April 1997). In the meantime and as from the adoption of the present resolution, no monitoring procedure may be initiated on the basis of Order No. 508.

ii. - Terms of reference of the Assembly Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee)

(as modified by Resolutions 1431 (2005), 1515 (2006), 1841 (2011), 1936 (2013), 2018 (2014), 2261 (2019) and 2325 (2020))

Recalling the basic values which are the Council of Europe’s raison d’être, particularly pluralist parliamentary democracy, which is a political, legal and cultural system based on respect of human rights, the rule of law and everyone’s right to take part in public life, and which entails the active commitment of each individual and their government to values such as equality, social integration, tolerance and respect for diversity,
1. The committee is responsible for seeking to ensure:

i. the fulfilment of the obligations assumed by the member states under the terms of the Council of Europe Statute, the European Convention on Human Rights and all other conventions concluded within the Organisation to which they are parties;

ii. the honouring of the commitments entered into by the authorities of member states on their accession to the Council of Europe.

2. The member states shall fully co-operate with the Monitoring Committee within the framework of the present terms of reference.
3. An application to initiate a monitoring procedure may originate from:

i. the general committees of the Assembly by reasoned written application to the Bureau;

ii. the Monitoring Committee by a written opinion prepared by two co-rapporteurs containing a draft decision to open a monitoring procedure;

iii. not less than 20 members of the Assembly representing at least 6 national delegations and 2 political groups, through the tabling of a motion for a resolution or recommendation;

iv. the Bureau of the Assembly.

4. The Bureau shall refer applications tabled in accordance with paragraphs 3.i and iii above to the Monitoring Committee at one of its next two meetings following their tabling. References to the Monitoring Committee requesting examination of such applications under the procedure provided for in paragraph 5 shall lapse after two years, in accordance with Rule 26.4. of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly. The Monitoring Committee, with an absolute majority of all members of the committee and subject to confirmation by the Bureau of the Assembly, can decide not to take further action regarding a request to open a monitoring procedure originating under paragraph 3.iii of its terms of reference.
5. Applications, other than those originating from the Monitoring Committee itself, shall be considered by the Monitoring Committee. Two co-rapporteurs shall carry out the necessary investigations and prepare a written opinion containing a draft decision proposing:
— the opening (or reopening) of a monitoring procedure and instructing the Monitoring Committee to carry out this procedure,
— not to open (or not to reopen) such a procedure.
In the light of the Monitoring Committee’s written opinion, the Bureau shall express itself on whether to open (or reopen) a monitoring procedure.
Subsequently, with regard to all the applications referred to in paragraph 3:
— if both the Monitoring Committee and the Bureau agree to open (reopen) the monitoring procedure or take divergent positions, the written opinion adopted by the Monitoring Committee shall be transformed, by way of derogation from Rule 50.2. of the Rules of Procedure, into a report containing a draft resolution and the Bureau shall include this item in the agenda and order of business of the next Assembly part-session for debate and adoption of the draft resolution. A representative of the Bureau may speak in its name in this debate. The Assembly may decide, if appropriate, to refer the matter to one or more committee for an opinion;
— in case both the Monitoring Committee and the Bureau consider that there is no need to open or to reopen a monitoring procedure, such decision should be recorded in the Progress Report of the Bureau and the Standing Committee. The Assembly shall confirm this decision by a vote during the discussion of the Progress Report of the Bureau. However, during that discussion the Assembly may decide by a majority vote following a request by at least ten members, that a debate be held during the next part-session on the written opinion of the Monitoring Committee which then shall be transformed into a report containing a draft resolution.
The Assembly or Standing Committee may itself decide, when adopting a resolution, a recommendation or an opinion on accession, to initiate a monitoring procedure and entrust it directly to the Monitoring Committee. In such a case, the procedure provided for in paragraphs 3 and 5 shall not be applicable.
6. Except in special circumstances, a monitoring procedure should not commence until six months after a member state’s accession to the Council of Europe.
7. The Monitoring Committee shall examine questions concerning the functioning of democratic institutions in Council of Europe member states, taking account of their statutory and convention-based obligations, in accordance with Rule 26 of the Rules of Procedure. Paragraph 11 of Resolution 1115 (1997) shall apply accordingly.
8. The Monitoring Committee is seized, in accordance with Rule 26 of the Rules of Procedure, to carry out regular periodic reviews of the compliance of the obligations entered into upon their accession to the Council of Europe by member states that are not already under a full monitoring procedure or engaged in a post-monitoring dialogue. The order and frequency of these reports will be decided upon by the committee in accordance with its internal working methods based on substantive grounds, with the objective of producing, over time, periodic review reports on all member states.
9. The Monitoring Committee may be seized, in accordance with Rule 26 of the Rules of Procedure, to prepare a report on a cross-country thematic issue, in close co-operation with the relevant Assembly committees.
10. In accordance with Rule 49 , the Monitoring Committee may set up sub-committees on the monitoring of specific obligations and commitments of member states or groups of member states.
11. The committee’s conclusions should contain a summary of its position and give rise to an official Assembly document including a draft resolution and/or recommendation as appropriate (see Rule 50 ).
12. The committee will state in its reports whether the monitoring procedure in respect of a given country is to be considered completed.
13. A report to the Assembly on the post-monitoring dialogue carried out with a member state shall include a draft resolution which either states that the post-monitoring dialogue should be concluded or establishes concrete deadlines for the fulfilment of outstanding commitments. In the latter case, the failure to meet those deadlines, if so stated in the following report submitted to the Assembly would imply the return to the full monitoring procedure.
14. In the case of reports on the honouring of obligations and commitments, periodic review reports on the honouring of membership obligations, and reports on the post-monitoring dialogue, the authorities of the country in question will be given a six-week period to provide their comments on the preliminary draft report to be transmitted to them by the committee. These comments will be discussed as part of the consideration of the draft report by the committee. No comments by the authorities are required for the consideration of a draft report on the functioning of democratic institutions. Draft reports shall remain confidential until the authorities have been able to give their comments within the aforementioned deadline and the report has been examined by the committee. All other memoranda and working documents of the committee shall remain confidential unless declassified by the committee.
15. The Monitoring Committee may establish contacts with the subsidiary bodies of the Committee of Ministers which are competent to monitor member states’ obligations and commitments, the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), and the relevant international institutions.