Doc. 8824

18 September 2000

Former embassies of the Baltic states on the territory of some Council of Europe member states

Recommendation 1392 (1998)

Reply from the Committee of Ministers

adopted at the 720^th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (13 September 2000)

The Committee of Ministers has carefully considered Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1392 (1998) on former embassies of the Baltic states on the territory of some Council of Europe member states, which embassies are currently occupied by the diplomatic and consular services of the Russian Federation.

The Committee of Ministers looks forward to the states concerned bringing negotiations on this matter to a positive result in the shortest possible time, bearing in mind Parliamentary Assembly Opinion No. 193.

It has asked to be kept informed of the outcome, which it hopes will be mutually acceptable to all the parties, and will resume consideration of the issue at one of its future meetings.

The Committee of Ministers further recalls that a report on the Pilot Project on States’ practice in the matter of State succession and questions of recognition was drawn up under the auspices of the Ad hoc Committee of Legal Advisers on Public International Law (CAHDI).

Without specifically discussing the case raised by Recommendation 1392 (1998), this report also examines, in its chapter 4 on State succession in matters of property, the problem of the premises used as diplomatic missions by the Baltic states between the two world wars.