3 February 1993

Doc. 6761

MOTION FOR AN ORDER

on the use of Russian as a working language of the Assembly

presented by Mr TARSCHYS and others

1.       The Council of Europe is in the process of acquiring a pan-European dimension. Many states are candidates for membership. The parliaments of most of these states already enjoy special guest status.

      Many of these states fall within the geographical area of Eastern Europe, where Russian plays an important role: it serves as a lingua franca between several peoples of the region and has a large number of speakers.

2.       Article 12 of the Statute of the Council of Europe provides, inter alia, that the Assembly's Rules of Procedure shall determine in what circumstances and under what conditions languages other than the two official languages may be used. Rule 17.3 of the Assembly's Rules of Procedure currently provides that, in addition to the two official languages, German and Italian shall be used in the Assembly and may be used in its committees as additional working languages.

3.       Under these circumstances, the Assembly

i.       believes that the use of the Russian language would be particularly useful for increasing the efficiency of the Assembly's work;

ii.       expresses the wish that the Russian language be adopted as an additional working language of the Assembly;

iii.       instructs its Committee on the Budget and the Intergovernmental Work Programme to consider the financial implications of this step and the Committee on Rules of Procedure to propose appropriate amendments to the Assembly's Rules of Procedure.

Signed:

Tarschys, Laakso, Pini, Roseta, Muehlemann, Espersen,

Atkinson, Hjelm-Wallen, Alemyr, Granstedt, Franck, Anttila