Designation of national delegations to the Parliamentary Assembly
Doc. 7627
6 September 1996
REPORT[1]
Rapporteur: Mr SCHIEDER, Austria, Socialist Group
Summary
The Parliamentary Assembly considers that it should strengthen its possibilities to control observance of the rule of pluralistic representation of national delegations to the Assembly.
The Assembly's Rules of Procedure should therefore clearly specify that each member state is required to compose its delegation in a manner ensuring equitable representation of the political parties or forces present in its parliament, in so far as this is possible given the size of the delegation.
Furthermore, each member state should indicate the methods for the distribution of the seats on the delegation among the political groups in its parliament. This information shall be provided when a new delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly is appointed at the opening of the parliamentary year or following parliamentary elections.
I. Draft resolution
1. By its Resolution 932 (1989) the Assembly introduced in its Rules of Procedure the possibility of contesting the credentials of national delegations which do not reflect the various currents of opinion within their parliaments.
2. It considers that it should strengthen its possibilities to control the compliance with the principle of a pluralistic composition of national delegations which is laid down in Rule 6, paragraph 5.a., of the Assembly's Rules of Procedure.
3. The Assembly therefore decides to change its Rules of Procedure and to insert in Rule 6, after paragraph 4, the following new paragraphs:
"5. In so far as this is possible given the number of their members, national delegations of the Assembly should be composed so as to ensure an equitable representation of the political parties or forces present in their parliaments.
6. When a parliament of a member state appoints a new delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly at the opening of the latter's parliamentary year or following parliamentary elections, it shall indicate the methods for the distribution of the seats on the delegation between the political groups existing within it."
II. Explanatory memorandum
by Mr SCHIEDER
A. Introduction
1. At the Bureau's meetings on 25 and 29 September 1995 some problems were discussed concerning arrangements for designating certain national delegations to the Assembly.[2] On 8 November 1995 the Bureau considered a memorandum by the Office of the Clerk of the Assembly taking stock of the current rules on the subject. At the same meeting I was asked to draw up a memorandum on the designation of national delegations to the Parliamentary Assembly with a view to submitting some proposals capable of serving as guidelines for national parliaments in the matter and in order to ensure, in due course, the fairest possible representation of a parliament's political parties or forces and the application of common rules of procedure regarding appointments. At present, each parliament chooses its own designation procedure and the time has no doubt come to try to lay down some common rules.
2. At its meeting on 22 January 1996 the Bureau referred the afore-mentioned note to the Committee on Rules of Procedure which, following consideration at its meetings on 25 April and 17 and 25 June 1996, approved the present report.
B. Main features of the designation of national delegations to the Assembly
3. According to Article 25.a, first sub-paragraph, of the Council of Europe's Statute, "The Consultative [Parliamentary] Assembly shall consist of Representatives of each Member elected by its Parliament or appointed in such manner as that Parliament shall decide, subject, however, to the right of each Member Government to make any additional appointments necessary when the Parliament is not in session and has not laid down the procedure to be followed in that case."
4. This wording of Article 25.a was inserted into the Statute in 1970 by means of a revision in the manner prescribed in Article 41.d; it is based on the Assembly's Recommendation 600 (1970). The main purpose of this recommendation was to strengthen the Assembly's authority and representative character (Doc. 2745, paragraph 2).
5. The Statute therefore leaves it to national parliaments (except in the case referred to at the end of the first sub-paragraph of Article 25.a)[3]:
� either to elect the members of their national delegations;
� or to appoint them in accordance with whatever procedure the parliaments themselves have chosen.
6. In this context it may be recalled that Article 31 of the draft revised Statute, appended to Recommendation 1212 (1993), required that national delegations should have a "pluralistic composition". Indirectly the Assembly has already made this principle a procedural obligation as Rule 6, 5 a. of the Rules of Procedure[4] permits to contest the credentials of a national delegation not reflecting the various currents of opinion within its parliament.
7. Periodic surveys made by the Office of the Clerk of the Assembly (1962, 1975, 1979-80, 1985) have shown that the appointment of members is, in most cases, governed by a specific law, by special procedural provisions or by texts (resolutions, decisions) adopted by national parliaments.
8. The seats in a parliamentary delegation are divided between the national parliament's political groups either on a proportional basis or on the basis of an agreement between the groups (or their chairmen). In some cases individual candidatures are also allowed. In certain parliaments, members of an electoral list not representing a specific percentage of the seats in the national parliament (for example 5%) or not meeting the conditions for forming a parliamentary group are not considered for membership of the parliament's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly.
9. In most of the bicameral national parliaments there are rules on the distribution of seats between the two chambers. This distribution is mostly made on a 1:1 basis (or close to it) if both chambers are directly elected by the people. When this is not the case, the respective chamber is sometimes represented on the delegation on a much weaker ratio or not at all.
10. Candidatures for appointment to the Parliamentary Assembly (other than individual candidatures, if allowed) are submitted to the national parliament by the political groups or on the basis of a joint motion of the political groups. In the United Kingdom the entitlements of the various parties are worked out after each General Election by officials of the United Kingdom Parliament. Each party then selects its members of the delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly from each House in their own way and the names are then co-ordinated and announced by the Prime Minister. Both Houses of the British Parliament have previously endorsed such a procedure by resolution.
As far as Ireland is concerned, when notification is received from the Parliamentary Assembly regarding possible changes to be made to the composition of the Delegation, it is brought to the attention of the Government Chief Whip and the other Party Whips. They then meet together and nominate the Delegation for the coming year and inform the Secretary of the Delegation of the changes, if any, to be made. An announcement for the information of the House (Dail Eireann) is then made by the Government Chief Whip. In cases where a senator is nominated to the Delegation by his/her Party Whip, an announcement is also made for the information of the Senate (Seanad Eireann).
11. Sometimes national parliaments (or chambers) will authorise their presidents/speakers to appoint members of the delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly according to the political groups' recommendations and having regard to proportional representation.
12. When members of a delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly are elected by the national parliament, either the minutes of the relevant sitting or a resolution adopted at that sitting will constitute the official instrument of appointment.
13. If the number of candidatures does not exceed the number of seats to be filled in the delegation, designations will not usually be made by a formal election but by general approval. In that case, the list of candidatures will often be displayed in an appropriate manner and published in official gazettes.
C. Scope for intervention by the Parliamentary Assembly in the appointment of national parliamentary delegations
a. General points
14. From a historical point of view it is interesting to note that the International Council of the European Movement advocated in its recommendations of 28 February 1949 on the composition and organisation of the Assembly (paragraph 4), that parliamentarians should (subject to their undertaking to give loyal support to the creation of a united democratic Europe) be appointed in such a way as to ensure that the parties (political groups) set up within each parliament concerned were properly represented.
15. In practice, the Assembly and its Committee on Rules of Procedure have always maintained that national parliaments have a considerable degree of discretion in the appointment of their delegations to the Assembly. In the context of Rule 6.5.a in fine, of its Rules of Procedure[5] (see paragraph 6 above) the Assembly expressed the view that it should avoid any interference in a member state's internal political affairs and hence should refrain from involving itself in a detailed analysis of the political composition of a national delegation (Doc. 6101: "Report on the composition of national delegations" and Doc. 6610, paragraph 12: "Report on the credentials of the United Kingdom delegation").
16. However, the Assembly is required, by the credentials examination procedure based on the organisation's Statute (Article 28.c.iv), to uphold the Council of Europe's fundamental values, viz. the rule of law, respect for human rights and the principles of pluralistic democracy (cf Rule 6, paragraph 5.a of the Rules of Procedure and Resolution 1081 (1996) which introduced four new parapraphs into Rule 6).
17. The report on the contested credentials of the Cyprus delegation (Doc. 1762, paragraph 9) emphasised that the principle of the rule of law, as enunciated in Article 3 of the Statute and recognised as binding by member states, should be applicable to the procedure adopted under internal rules for designating members to the Parliamentary Assembly; except in urgent cases, the Parliamentary Assembly should not, however, intervene until domestic remedies had been exhausted (for example, an appeal to the national parliament's competent institutions or a national constitutional appeal).
18. In the past, the Assembly has also, while concluding that Rule 6 of its Rules of Procedure had not been infringed, accompanied its approval of a national delegation's credentials with desiderata or recommendations aimed at ensuring that in future the national appointment procedure would be brought more closely in line with the spirit of the Council of Europe's Statute and the Assembly's Rules of Procedure (see Doc. 6610, paragraph 17).
b. The question of the Albanian delegation
19. In autumn 1995 the Chairman of the group of the Albanian Social Democratic Party complained that the Albanian Parliament had peremptorily designated a representative of that group as a member of the Albanian delegation to the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly without having regard to the candidate proposed by the group itself. This version was, however, disputed.
20. If the objection by the Chairman of the group of the Albanian Social Democratic Party proves to be valid, it would raise, for the first time, the problem that a member parliament's political group which is entitled to a seat on the national delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly is obliged to accept the designation of one of its members other than the candidate chosen by the political group itself.
c. Scope for monitoring by the Assembly of the designation of a national delegation's members on the basis of the existing texts
21. Under the current rules, it is not until credentials come to be examined[6] that the Assembly can monitor the arrangements for designating a national delegation and ascertain that the relevant provisions of the Statute have been observed, including the principle of a composition reflecting the various currents of opinion in a national parliament. It should be noted that the Assembly has so far kept to a strict interpretation of Article 25.a, first paragraph, of the Statute which provides that each member state's representatives shall be elected by the national parliament from among its members or appointed by it from among its members in such manner it shall itself decide.
22. It is probably inconceivable that the Assembly should now radically alter its approach by laying down a uniform and detailed procedure not respecting the specific characteristics of each national parliament.
23. It seems difficult for the Assembly to stipulate that if one of a national parliament's political groups (which can claim, under the internal rules, to be represented in the delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly) puts forward the requisite number of candidatures, the parliament must compulsorily and automatically accept the candidature or candidatures.
24. Moreover it should be borne in mind that the rigorous representation of all political forces can never be ensured in member parliaments, which have a limited number of seats in the Assembly (for example, between 2 and 4, together with the same number of substitutes) and possess more political groups than there are seats to be filled. The problem could be attenuated by a rotation system to be agreed by political groups for the duration of the legislature.
25. However, the Assembly cannot remain indifferent to designation conflicts which, over and beyond the tensions normally existing between political groups, betray a certain malaise regarding the way in which pluralism is practised as well as deficiencies in the method of designating the members of certain national parliaments' delegations.
D. Proposals
26. It is desirable that the Assembly should increase its scope for monitoring observance of the rule of pluralistic representation in national delegations. For this purpose, it should clearly specify in its Rules of Procedure - which is not the case at present - that each member state is required
� to compose its delegation in a manner ensuring equitable representation of the political parties or forces present in its parliament, in so far as this is possible given the size of the delegation,
� to indicate the methods for the distribution of the seats on the delegation among the political groups in its parliament. This information should be provided when a new delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly is appointed at the opening of the parliamentary year or following parliamentary elections.
27. In the case of bicameral parliaments and if one chamber is not directly elected by the people, it should be considered to elect or appoint the whole delegation (for both chambers) by the chamber directly elected by the people[7] or, if appropriate, by the political groups/political parties represented in this chamber.
28. Furthermore, on this procedural basis and in the event of an objection, the Assembly could envisage addressing recommendations to any national parliament experiencing difficulties in designating its delegation's members[8].
E. Final remarks
29. The Committee on Rules of Procedure proposed that the present report should be submitted to the Standing Committee for adoption and that the new provisions should enter into force immediately after their adoption.
Reporting committee: Committee on Rules of Procedure
Budgetary implications for the Assembly: None
Reference to committee: See Progress Report of the Bureau and the Standing Committee, Doc. 7430, Addendum VI.
Draft resolution adopted unanimously by the committee on 25 June 1996.
Members of the committee: Mrs Lentz-Cornette (Chairperson), MM. Rewaj, Verbeek (Vice-Chairpersons), MM. A�ba, Alloncle, Cummings, Dias, Djerov, Sir Anthony Durant, Mr Fenech, Lord Finsberg, MM. Gabrielescu, Gjellerod, Goovaerts, Mrs Holand (Alternate: Thoresen), MM. Kostiutkin, Kyprianou, Laakso, Lorenzi, Loukota, Magnusson, Marten (Alternate: Lummer), Masson, Moln�r (Alternate: E�rsi), Proriol, Pukl, Mrs Pulgar, Mr Pyatnitsky, Mrs Ragnarsdottir, MM. Rokofyllos (Alternate: Liapis), Schieder, Schloten (Alternate: Antretter), von Schmude (Alternate: Zierer), Seiler (Alternate: Gross), Selva, Sinka, Slobodnik, Soldani, Spahia, Stretovych, Tahiri, Wallace.
N.B. The names of those members who took part in the vote are printed in italics.
Secretary of the committee : Mr Schade.
[1]. By the Committee on Rules of Procedure.
[2]. In this connection, see also the Bureau's discussion at its meeting on 27 June 1994 (AS/Bur (1994) PV 8).
[3]. This passage reads as follows: "Subject however to the right of each Member Government to make any additional appointments necessary when the Parliament is not in session and has not laid down the procedure to be followed in that case."
[4]. This provision was introduced by Resolution 932 (1989), constituting a procedural sequel to Recommendation 1027 (1986), which proposed adding the following sentence to Article 25 of the Council of Europe's Statute: "The delegation of each Member must fairly represent the political forces present in its parliament".
[5]. Rule 6, para. 5.a reads as follows: "Credentials which give rise to an objection or are contested shall be referred without debate to the Committee on Rules of Procedure. In every case where there is an objection or credentials are contested, the reasons shall be stated and shall be based upon one or more of the relevant provisions of the Statute (in particular Articles 3, 25 and 26), including the democratic principles set out in the Preamble to the Statute, and the principle that national parliamentary delegations should reflect the various currents of opinion within their Parliaments". The third paragraph of the Preamble to the Statute reads as follows: "Reaffirming their devotion to the spiritual and moral values which are the common heritage of their peoples and the true source of individual freedom, political liberty and rule of law, principles which form the basis of all genuine democracy".
[6]. Resolution 1081 (1996) provides for an exception in cases of a serious violation of the provisions of Article 3 of the Statute, of persistent failure to honour commitments made by member States on the occasion of their accession to the Council of Europe and of lack of cooperation in the monitoring process (honouring of commitments).
[7]. A similar procedure was proposed by the European Parliament to those member parliaments of the European Union which, after their country's accession to the Union, designated the representatives to the European Parliament, pending the next direct elections to the latter.
[8]. Such recommendations possess no legally binding force. The duty to act upon a recommendation goes no further than to consider in good faith whether or not it should be implemented.