Composition of the Standing Committee and the voting right of political group chairmen in the bureau and on the Standing Committee

6 May 1994

Doc. 7084

1403-29/4/94-3-E

REPORT

on the composition of the Standing Committee

and the voting right of political group chairmen

in the Bureau and the Standing Committee

(Rapporteur: Sir Anthony DURANT,

United Kingdom, European Democratic Group)

Summary

In view of the essential contribution made by the chairmen of political groups to the preparation of Parliamentary Assembly decisions, it is proposed to grant them the right to vote in the Bureau and on the Standing Committee.

The Assembly also feels that henceforth the Standing Committee should have a fixed membership. Each national delegation shall appoint regular members and alternates to the Standing Committee on the same basis as for the general committees which have fifty-four seats at present.

The President and the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly in their capacity of ex officio members of the Standing Committee shall be taken into account in the allocation of its seats, as they are elected by the Assembly. The other ex officio members (chairmen of the political groups and general committees) shall be added to the Standing Committee.

I. Draft resolution

1. The Parliamentary Assembly recalls its Resolution 975 (1991) which reinforced the Standing Committee's function of lightening the workload of the Assembly's plenary sessions by adopting texts on the latter's behalf.

2. It considers that the Standing Committee would better reflect the Assembly's composition if appointments to it were made on the basis of a number of seats allocated to each national delegation.

3. The Assembly also stresses the valuable contribution made by political group chairmen to the Assembly's work, which would be further enhanced by giving them voting rights in the Bureau and on the Standing Committee.

4. Consequently, the Assembly decides to amend as follows its Rules of Procedure:

a. To replace Rule 8 by the following text:

"Bureau of the Assembly

1. The Bureau shall consist of the President, the seventeen1 Vice-Presidents of the Assembly and the chairmen or their representatives of the political groups. The delegation to which belongs the President of the Assembly may only propose an additional candidate to the Bureau if that delegation is in any case represented on the Bureau following application of the appointment system for the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly.2 This candidate shall be elected by the Assembly in accordance with Rule 9 of the Rules of Procedure. He/she shall speak and vote on behalf of his/her delegation. The President may, however, vote in the case of a draw.

2. The President and the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly shall be elected ... (remainder unchanged)."

b. To alter the title of Rule 9 to read as follows:

"Election of the President and Vice-Presidents".

c. To replace Rule (41) 5 by the following text:

"The chairmen of political groups or their representatives are ex officio members of the Bureau and the Standing Committee with voting rights".

d. To replace Rule 42 (2) by the following text:

"2. In accordance with the procedure laid down in Rule 43 for the first seven general Assembly committees, each national delegation shall appoint its regular members and alternates to the Standing Committee. The President of the Assembly, who shall be Chairman of the committee, and the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly, who shall be vice-chairmen, shall be members ex officio. They shall be taken into consideration in the allocation of seats among the national delegations. The chairmen (or one of the vice-chairmen) of the general committees listed in Rule 43 (1) and the chairmen of the political groups (or their representatives) shall also be members ex officio, but shall not be taken into consideration in the allocation of seats among national delegations".

e. To replace in paragraphs 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9 of Rule 55a the words "enlarged Bureau" and "Bureau enlarged to include the chairmen of the political groups" by "Bureau".

5. The Assembly decides that the amended Rules shall enter into force at the opening of the Assembly's 1995 session (January 1995).

II. Explanatory memorandum

by Sir Anthony DURANT

A. Introduction

1. On 1 February 1993, at the request of the Bureau of the Assembly, Lord Finsberg drew the attention of the Committee on Rules of Procedure to possible difficulties over the application of the provisions concerning the composition of the Standing Committee. It sometimes happened that delegations were represented on this committee solely by ex officio members, namely the President or a Vice-President of the Assembly and/or one or more committee chairmen. This could result in an unfair political balance. When the Committee on Rules of Procedure met on 30 September 1993 a member raised the problem of alternates for committee chairmen as ex officio members of the Standing Committee.

2. Following another Bureau decision of 2 July 1993 the Committee on Rules of Procedure was instructed to examine the proposal to grant the chairmen of the political groups the right to vote in the Bureau of the Assembly. This request was mainly justified by the even more important role played by groups since the Council of Europe's enlargement and the essential contribution of their chairmen to preparing the Parliamentary Assembly's decisions.

B. The present rules

a. The Standing Committee

3. According to the principles set out in Rule 42 (2) of the Rules of Procedure, which have remained unchanged since 1951 (see Appendix) the Standing Committee consists of:

—ex officio members: the President of the Assembly, the seventeen Vice-Presidents, and the chairmen of the Assembly's (thirteen) general committees;—

—a number of members to be decided by the Assembly.At

At present the Bureau's composition is limited to fourteen Vice-Presidents (and the President) but according to Resolution 1017 (1993) of the Assembly the delegation to which belongs the President of the Assembly may propose an additional candidate to the Bureau if that delegation is represented on the Bureau following the application of the appointment system for the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly. The person thus elected Vice-President of the Assembly is also ex officio member of the Standing Committee.

The chairmen of political groups or their representatives are invited to attend the meetings of the committee in an advisory capacity (Rule 41 (5)). On 3 September 1993 the Committee on Rules of Procedure proposed to give them the right to vote.

4. It should be noted that under the new Rule 10 (3), adopted on 4 November 1993 (Resolution 1017) the President of the Assembly has no voting right in the Standing Committee, except in the case of an equality of votes. As he has — like the fourteen Vice-Presidents — an alternate of his national delegation in the Standing Committee, this alternate may vote in the President's place.

5. According to Rule 42 (2) the distribution of seats on the Standing Committee and the appointment of its members are governed by Rule 43. Its paragraph 2 specifies each member state's entitlement to seats in the various general committees of the Assembly. Paragraph 4 of the same Rule stipulates that "besides the regular members, an equal number of alternates of the same nationality shall be appointed for each committee". Paragraph 5 of Rule 43 states that candidatures for membership of committees and therefore also of the Standing Committee shall be addressed to the President of the Assembly, who shall submit proposals to the Assembly for the composition of that committee at the close of the first part-session (Rule 42, paragraph 1).

6. It is long-standing practice in the Assembly (see Appendix) to interpret these provisions as follows:

—se ats are allocated to each member state in the same proportion as for the main general committees of the Assembly (see Rule 43 (1) Nos. 1 to 7);—

—no n-ex officio members of the Standing Committee are appointed by the Assembly in a manner which ensures that each member state has on the Standing Committee the same number of seats as it has on the main general committees, the nationality of the ex officio members being taken into account (see The Parliamentary Assembly, Procedure and Practice, 9th edition, 1990, p. 117);—

—an alternate is appointed for each member of the Standing Committee;—

—if by reason of the number of its ex officio members on the Standing Committee any delegation exceeds the number of seats allocated to it under Rule 43 (1), this has no effect on the other delegations; the total number of members of the Standing Committee is simply increased for the duration of the session in progress (see the Bureau's decision of 12 May 1953);—

—in the case of Standing Committee members appointed by the Assembly, all candidatures are submitted to the Assembly by its President.7.

7. The Standing Committee performs a dual function:

i. firstly, it is a steering body of the Assembly in administrative matters (it prepares the work of the Assembly and ensures its continuity of action; it adopts the agenda of each Assembly part-session);

ii. secondly, it acts on the Assembly's behalf, in particular by adopting texts in order to lighten the workload of the Assembly's plenary sessions (see also Resolution 484 (1971)); adoption is final and may not be called into question in plenary sitting (see paragraph 29 of Doc. 2925). Resolution 975 (1991) reinforces this function of the Standing Committee.

The Standing Committee is therefore not a committee proper but a permanent organ of the Assembly. It also has been called "an Assembly in miniature" (see Appendix).

8. When the Standing Committee acts on the Assembly's behalf, it is important that it reflects the Assembly's composition as far as possible. Critics of present practice within the Standing Committee complain that it is impossible for a national delegation to appoint members of the Standing Committee (and so remedy any political imbalance) in the event of its quota of seats consisting entirely of ex officio members. This is the situation in which nine delegations found themselves during the 44th session of the Assembly (May 1992-January 1994).

b. Voting right of political group chairmen in the Bureau and in the Standing Committee

9. Initially the chairmen did not attend Bureau or Standing Committee meetings. In March 1961 the Standing Committee, when examining its own composition, decided to invite on an ad hoc basis the political group chairmen to its meetings in an advisory capacity. In 1964 this practice was codified in Rule 41 (5) and also extended to Bureau meetings.

10. Resolution 473 (1971) of the Parliamentary Assembly on the composition and powers of the Bureau of the Assembly welcomes in paragraph 3 the Bureau's practice of inviting to its meetings on an ad hoc basis the chairmen of political groups. Since 1974 political group chairmen have participated regularly in Bureau and Standing Committee meetings. This practice was codified (Rule (41) 5) by Resolution 852 (1985).

11. When special guest status was introduced in 1989 (Resolutions 917 and 920), the political group chairmen were granted voting rights in the Bureau for all matters regarding this status (Rule 55a).

C. Proposals

a. Standing Committee

12. The Committee on Rules of Procedure examined the following solutions (see also the Appendix):

i. Introduction of a fixed membership of the Standing Committee; each national delegation appoints regular members and alternates to the Standing Committee on the same basis as for the first seven3 general committees listed in Rule 43 (1). The President and the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly as ex officio members of the Standing Committee would be taken into consideration in the allocation of its seats, as they are elected by the Assembly (Vice-Presidents on the basis of proposals from national delegations). The other ex officio members would then be added, according to the modalities described below (paragraphs 13 to 16, 19) In contrast to present practice committee chairmen will no longer be counted for the purposes of calculating the number of seats to which a national delegation is entitled in the Standing Committee (under Rule 43 (2) mutatis mutandis).

ii. Entitlement to appoint an extra member (without alternate) when all the seats of a national delegation to the Standing Committee are held by ex officio members.

iii. Replacement of the Standing Committee by an "enlarged conference of presidents" consisting of the President and Vice-Presidents of the Assembly, the committee chairmen, the chairmen of the political groups, and an additional member for each delegation not already represented.

13. First, the Committee on Rules of Procedure favoured variant (ii) which — while limiting the increase of Standing Committee members — solved the problem of delegations with ex officio members only. But at a later stage difficulties arose with respect to alternates4 of committee chairmen on the Standing Committee.

14. The introduction of fixed membership of the Standing Committee as proposed under variant (i) would settle this issue. But the Committee on Rules of Procedure had also to take a stand on the voting rights of committee chairmen in the Standing Committee. Some members of the Committee on Rules of Procedure considered that committee chairmen should participate in Standing Committee meetings without the right to vote (option A), others preferred maintaining the status quo with respect to voting rights (option B).

15. The main differences between the two options are:

—un der present conditions 5he Standing Committee would have up to seventy-two members with voting rights under option A and up to fifty-nine voting members under option B;—

—wh ereas committee chairmen would continue having voting rights under option A, this would not be the case with option B;—

—su ch voting rights (option A) may under certain conditions upset the national political balance in the Standing Committee.16

16. After thorough discussion the committee decided to maintain the voting right of committee chairmen in the Standing Committee.

17. It should be noted that the above proposals do not change the situation of national delegations having one seat on the Standing Committee. If they have the presidency or one vice-presidency of the Assembly their quota of seats on the Standing Committee is exhausted.

b. Voting right of political group chairmen in the Bureau and the Standing Committee

18. For the reasons indicated in paragraph 2 above the Committee on Rules of Procedure unanimously proposed to make the chairmen of political groups ex officio members of the Bureau, with voting rights.

19. As members of the Bureau are automatically members of the Standing Committee, the Committee on Rules of Procedure also examined the status of group chairmen in the Standing Committee. It proposes to make them (and in case they are prevented from attending a meeting, their representatives) ex officio members of the committee with voting rights.

c. Procedural consequences

20. The following changes would be required:

—am ending of Rules 8, 9, 41 (5), 42 (2) and 55a of the Rules of Procedure;—

—de letion of footnote 1 to Rule 41 (5);—

—th ere would be no longer an enlarged Bureau (Rule 55a) as its functions would be taken over by the "new style" Bureau. D.

D. Final remarks

21. The Committee on Rules of Procedure proposed that the amended rules should come into force at the opening of the 1995 session of the Parliamentary Assembly (January 1995).

APPENDIX

Historical background

(composition of the Standing Committee)

1. By Resolution 9 of 5 September 1949 the Assembly decided that a "Standing Committee, consisting of the President, the four Vice-Presidents, and twenty-three members of the Assembly who shall include, ex officio, the six chairmen of committees" would be set up immediately by an Assembly resolution on the Bureau's recommendation. For the composition of the Standing Committee formed accordingly (twenty-three members, including chairmen of committees, besides the Bureau, that is twenty-eight members in all) the Rules of Procedure laid down in Article 37 in regard to committees of twenty-three members were to be applied.

2. This composition of the Standing Committee was altered on 17 August 1950 by Article 39 of the revised Rules which stipulated that "The Standing Committee shall consist of the President, the six Vice-Presidents and a number of members to be decided by the Assembly which shall include the six chairmen of committees, who shall be members ex officio. The committee shall be established in accordance with the Rules of Procedure contained in Article 38". The reason behind this reform was the desire to allow the Assembly freely and without set rules to decide the number of additional members it wished to appoint and the number of seats to be allocated to each member state. The membership of the Standing Committee would thereby be increased and more equitably distributed (see Doc. 2 (1950)).

3. In accordance with Article 38 of the Rules of 17 August 1950, on 25 August 1950 the Bureau submitted to the Assembly proposals on the composition of the Standing Committee which added to the thirteen ex officio members fifteen members whose nationalities and political affinities had been specified. In its choice the Bureau had been guided by two considerations:

—th e need to restrict the number of members of the Standing Committee so that it did not exceed that of a large Assembly committee (twenty-eight members);—

—th e desire to ensure that all countries and political views were represented on the Standing Committee.4.

4. In December 1951, the provisions on the composition of the Standing Committee were again revised (Resolution 7 (1951). According to Rule 39 (2) "The Standing Committee shall consist of the President, the six Vice-Presidents, and the chairmen of the general committees who shall be members ex officio, and of a number of members to be decided by the Assembly. The distribution of seats and the appointment of members shall be governed by the provisions of Rule 40 below". In the explanatory memorandum which set out the principles underlying the Rules of Procedure adopted in December 1951, it was stated in paragraph 13 of Doc. 90 (1951) that the Standing Committee appeared under a separate heading and no longer came under Part IX dealing with committees. This acknowledged the fact that the Standing Committee was not a committee proper but a permanent delegation of the Assembly; it differed fundamentally from other Assembly committees in terms of purpose, methods of appointment, operation and procedure.

5. Apart from some minor technical or stylistic amendments, the same provision still governs the Standing Committee, although it has become Rule 42 (2). The number of members of the Standing Committee has of course increased as new member states have joined the Council of Europe.

6. During the Assembly's fifth ordinary session (1953-54) a problem arose because Belgium held the Chair of three committees and therefore three ex officio seats on the Standing Committee (instead of the two under the Rules). In order not to exceed the total of twenty-eight seats under the Rules for "main" Assembly committees, it was proposed to compensate within the Benelux group of countries by reducing the Netherlands quota to only one seat instead of two on the Standing Committee. The Bureau finally decided to propose to the Assembly that the number of seats on the Standing Committee be increased to thirty for the duration of the fifth session. The Assembly agreed to this proposal on 13 May 1953. This increase in the number of seats took place automatically in any similar cases later, limited of course to the duration of the relevant ordinary session.

7. At a meeting of the Standing Committee held on 21 April 1956 a member felt that if a committee chairman was prevented from attending a meeting of the Standing Committee he should arrange to be replaced by his vice-chairman. No follow-up action was taken on this proposal.

8. In an opinion on the competence of the Standing Committee, the Committee on Rules of Procedure stressed in 1957 (Doc. 614, p. 2) that the composition of the Standing Committee corresponded to that of the Assembly such that it constituted "an Assembly in miniature".

9. Between 1958 and 1961 several proposals were made to abolish or transform the Standing Committee. In the wake of certain attendance problems at Standing Committee meetings, the Clerk of the Assembly drafted a document on 30 July 1958 for the attention of the Bureau in which he stressed that ten years of experience showed that the Standing Committee was far too large and unwieldy for the few tasks it had to perform (AS/Bur (10) 10). He proposed:

—th at the Standing Committee be transformed and its competencies transferred to the Bureau of the Assembly;—

—or that it be transformed into a conference of chairmen comprising twenty-two members (instead of the twenty-nine regulatory members or thirty-two de facto members); not all delegations would be represented on it but the President and Vice-Presidents of the Assembly, chairmen of committees and chairmen of political groups would.10

10. Another memorandum issued by the Clerk at the time made it clear that the fact that not all member states were represented on the Standing Committee posed problems. This opinion was endorsed by the Committee on Rules of Procedure which, at the Bureau's request, examined the question in October 1958. It wanted to maintain a permanent body which was sufficiently representative of the Assembly and which, if necessary, could ensure the continuity of action of the Assembly and, when the occasion arose, act on its behalf. In the light of this stance, the Clerk presented the Bureau with the following revised proposals (AS/Bur (10) 22):

—ma intenance of the Standing Committee but with the possibility of consulting its members by correspondence;—

—re placement of the Standing Committee-b

- by an enlarged conference of chairmen together with a member for each delegation which would not otherwise be represented, or

- by a conference of chairmen whose twenty-two members would be equitably allocated along national or regional lines in accordance with an arrangement between the chairmen of national delegations and political groups.

The difficulty involved in implementing the latter variant was underlined.

11. Following fresh deliberations by, and agreement between, the Committee on Rules of Procedure and the Bureau, the former committee submitted its conclusions to the Assembly on 28 April 1961 (Doc. 1220). Its Rapporteur summed them up as follows:

—gi ven the importance of the Standing Committee as the body responsible for ensuring the continuity of action of the Assembly and, when the occasion arises, of acting on its behalf, it had necessarily to be representative of the Assembly, that is, all its committees and all political groups should be represented on it;—

—it was not possible to alter the membership of the Standing Committee by reducing its numbers without affecting its representative capacity.Fo

For that reason, according to the Rapporteur, the Committee on Rules of Procedure proposed that the Bureau be authorised, on certain conditions, to consult the Standing Committee by correspondence. The Assembly approved these proposals unanimously (CR 1961, p. 269).

12. On 30 January 1970 the Bureau decided that if seats of committee chairmen on the Standing Committee were vacant (because of elections) these seats should not automatically be allocated to the first vice-chairman of the committees but should remain vacant on behalf of the national delegations of the respective committee chairmen.

13. In March 1961 the Standing Committee decided to invite to its meetings on an ad hoc basis the chairmen of political groups (see also Resolutions 271 (1964), 473 (1971), 852 (1985)).

14. On 11 May 1990, at a meeting of the Bureau of the Assembly, a member drew attention to problems he had experienced connected with the composition of the Standing Committee. He explained that in his view the rules currently in force were interpreted in such a way that a national delegation might be deprived of the possibility of appointing regular members to the Standing Committee reflecting its national political representation because of the seats which were allocated ex officio. This situation could influence the vote in the Standing Committee, especially when it was acting on the Assembly's behalf, examining committee reports and adopting their texts.

15. On the Bureau's request, the Committee on Rules of Procedure examined this question on the basis of a working document which proposed, as an alternative to the status quo:

—th at national delegations be authorised to appoint regular members and alternates to the Standing Committee on the same basis as for the seven main general committees of the Assembly listed in paragraph 1 of Rule 43, bearing in mind that the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly are taken into consideration in the allocation of seats because they are elected (or declared elected) on the proposal of the national delegations;—

—th at the chairmen of the thirteen general committees be included in the Standing Committee but without voting rights when it acts on the Assembly's behalf.Ac

According to these proposals the Standing Committee would function differently according to whether it was acting on the Assembly's behalf (committee chairmen denied the right to vote) or as the steering body of the Assembly (committee chairman granted the right to vote).

16. The Committee on Rules of Procedure finally decided unanimously in June 1990 not to amend the provisions on the composition of the Standing Committee (Rule 42 (2)). It considered that any change to the system would result in an increase in the number of Standing Committee members and that this would greatly complicate their

appointment and above all the counting of votes. At its meeting of 12 September 1990 the Bureau decided to follow, for the time being, the opinion of the Committee on Rules of Procedure (see Doc. 6279, paragraph 10).

17. On 19 May 1992, the Chairman of the Italian delegation (Mr Foschi) in a letter to the President of the Assembly (AS/Pro (44) 7) proposed a reconsideration of the criteria applicable to the appointment of members of the Standing Committee given its growing role. He drew attention to the situation of the Italian delegation whose representation on the Standing Committee was unalterable and predetermined (except for the possibility of designating substitutes) because its members included a Vice-President of the Assembly and two committee chairmen who were ex officio members of the Standing Committee and occupied the three seats to which Italy was entitled. Mr Foschi considered that if a delegation could not appoint at least one Standing Committee member in addition to the ex officio members it was deprived of a direct link with that body. It might even create the ludicrous situation where all of a given country's representatives on the Standing Committee belonged to that country's opposition parties. This called for the question to be reconsidered, with a view to arriving at one of two solutions:

—st ipulate a certain fixed membership of the Standing Committee such that all delegations are duly represented, then add the ex officio members, or—

—re tain the present rule but stipulate that each delegation may nonetheless appoint to the Standing Committee at least one member irrespective of the number of ex officio members.18

18. In his reply of 18 June 1992 (see AS/Pro (44) 7), the President of the Assembly recalled the aforementioned decision of the Bureau, of 12 September 1990. But he did feel that the arguments which Mr Foschi put forward, which he endorsed, should be reconsidered in the present political context, that is the debate on the enlargement of the Council of Europe and its implications for the Statute and for the organisation of the Parliamentary Assembly's proceedings. The President also noted that Mr Reddemann's report on the enlargement of the Council of Europe (presented to the Assembly on 30 June 1992) indicated that the current Rules of Procedure should be adapted, in particular reviewing the composition of the Bureau of the Assembly, its committees, etc. Lastly, the President mentioned that he had communicated a copy of Mr Foschi's letter to the Rapporteur of the Committee on Rules of Procedure on the consequences of the Council of Europe's enlargement for the procedure and the working methods of the Assembly.

Reporting committee: Committee on Rules of Procedure.

Budgetary implications for the Assembly: none.

Reference to committee: decisions of the Bureau of 11 May 1990 and 2 July 1993.

Draft resolution adopted by the committee on 14 April 1994.

Members of the committee: Sir Anthony Durant (Chairman), Mr Dimmer, Mrs Aguiar (Vice-Chairpersons), MM. Alloncle, Bjorn Bjarnason, Borg, Cummings, Fico, Lord Finsberg, MM. Franck, Gabrielescu, Galanos, Gjellerod, Mrs Holand, MM. Junghanns, Karcsay, Laakso, Leccese, Loukota, Mrs Lucyga, MM. Mangakis, Marten, Maruflu, Masson, Mignon, Molloy, De Paoli, Pukl, Rewaj, Schieder, Schiesser, Solé Tura (Alternate: Grau i Buldu), Mrs Soutendijk-van Appeldoorn, MM. Stoilov, Thissen, Vinci.

N.B. The names of those members who took part in the vote are printed in italics.

Secretary to the committee: Mr Heinrich.

1 ¹At its meeting on 28 June 1993 the Bureau of the Assembly approved the proposals from the Committee on Rules of Procedure aiming at limiting in the first stage the Bureau's composition to fifteen members (including the President). This composition may be reviewed in due course, according to new accessions to the Council of Europe. See also Resolution 959 (1991).

2 ²See Progress Report of the Bureau and the Standing Committee, Doc. 6881, Appendix III, of which the Assembly took note on 28 June 1993.

3 ¹These committees have the largest number of seats (at present fifty-four full members and fifty-four alternates).

4 ¹See also paragraphs 7 and 12 of the Appendix.

5 ²Fifty-four members; five chairmen of political groups; thirteen general Assembly committees.