Doc. 8467
13 July 1999

Incompatibility of banning democratically elected political parties with Council of Europe standards

Motion for a resolution

presented by Mr Gross and others

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and only expresses the views of the members who have signed it

1.       Bearing in mind the order of a Public Prosecutor in one of the biggest and oldest member states of the Council of Europe to ban a large political party;

2.       Bearing also in mind that the reason for such an order is a speech of one of the leaders of this party during an ordinary parliamentary sitting and that this parliamentarian is also a member of the parliamentary delegation of the state concerned to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,

3.       The Assembly resolves to:

i.       study the question of banning political parties represented to parliament and its constitutional basis in Council of Europe member states over the last fifteen years;

ii.       examine the cases in which political parties may be banned in a healthy parliamentary democracy in accordance with Council of Europe standards;

iii.       inquire into the possibilities that leaders of parties threatened by a measure of non-democratic interdiction may have at their disposal;

iv.       propose measures that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe may take to prevent an undemocratic act in one of its member states and defend the vital and legitimate interests of one of its members.

Signed : ¹

Gross, Switzerland, SOC

Alis Font, Andorra, NR

Atkinson, United Kingdom, EDG

Cox, United Kingdom, SOC

Duivesteijn, Netherlands, SOC

Hancock, United Kingdom, LDR

Poptodorova, Bulgaria, SOC

Raskinis, Lithuania, EPP/CD

Tkác, Slovakia, EDG

Vermot-Mangold, Switzerland, SOC

Vis, United Kingdom, SOC

¹        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group