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Resolution 2208 (2018)
Modification of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure: the impact of the budgetary crisis on the list of working languages of the Assembly
1. The Parliamentary Assembly expresses
its great concern at the unprecedented budgetary crisis affecting
the Council of Europe as a whole.
2. The Council of Europe must face a cumulative financial risk
of €42.65 million for the first time in its history. This risk may
increase in the course of 2018. Turkey’s decision to renounce the
status of major contributor to the budget has resulted in a €20
million reduction in the Organisation’s budgetary resources. In parallel
with Turkey’s decision, since July 2017 the Council of Europe has
been confronted with a decision by the Russian Federation to suspend
payment of two thirds of its contributions due under the 2017 budget, amounting
to €22.65 million. Lastly, the Committee of Ministers, by maintaining
a strict zero nominal growth policy for 2018 and 2019, is obliging
the Organisation to identify additional savings in the ordinary
budget.
3. The draconian reduction in the Assembly’s budget for 2018
and 2019, a consequence of Turkey’s decision to revert to its initial
status of ordinary contributor to the Council of Europe budget,
calls for drastic measures. The first of these is to no longer cover,
out of the Assembly budget, the cost of interpretation in Turkish
in plenary sittings and in committee meetings or the publication
of the reports of debates in Turkish and the translation of adopted
texts into this language, since these expenses – €700 000 per year
– are no longer financed in the Assembly budget by the payment of
the corresponding grant from the Council of Europe’s ordinary budget.
4. In this context, the Assembly refers to the clear position
it adopted, notably in Resolution
2058 (2015) on the allocation of seats in the Parliamentary
Assembly with respect to Turkey, making the introduction of Turkish
as a working language of the Assembly strictly conditional upon
the Committee of Ministers’ decision to approve Turkey’s request
to become a major contributor to the Council of Europe’s budget
and to allocate the corresponding funds to the Assembly.
5. The Assembly’s budgetary difficulties have been worsened by
the decisions taken by the Committee of Ministers and the Russian
Federation’s refusal to pay the first third of its contribution
to the 2018 budget. Out of a total budget of just under €17.5 million,
the Assembly shall freeze €1.5 million of its appropriations in
2018, that is nearly 9% of its total budget; with respect to 2019,
however, the amount of €1.5 million might have to be permanently
removed from the budget altogether. The Assembly can only express
its strongest dissatisfaction at being forced to make such massive
cuts to its own budget, which has already been considerably weakened by
a decade of budgetary restrictions.
6. In the light of the above considerations, the Assembly decides
to amend its Rules of Procedure concerning the languages, as follows:
6.1. replace Rule 28.3 with the following
sentence: “The working languages of the Assembly shall be those
of the member States which are major contributors to the Council
of Europe budget, provided that the necessary appropriations for
their funding are entered in the Assembly’s budget”;
6.2. replace Rule 30.1 with the following: “Interpretation
during the meetings of the committees and the Bureau shall be provided
in the official languages and, for working languages, under the
conditions stipulated in Rule 28.3. Interpretation at meetings of
the Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court of
Human Rights and in sub-committees shall be limited to official
languages.”
7. The Assembly decides that the changes to the Rules of Procedure
set out in this resolution shall enter into force as from their
adoption.
8. It recalls that, in accordance with Rule 29.2 of the Rules
of Procedure, the Turkish parliamentary delegation can return to
the practice followed prior to 2016 and continue to benefit from
interpretation in Turkish as long as the cost is borne by the Turkish
Parliament.
9. The Assembly considers that it has not been able to present
the Committee of Ministers with an informed opinion on the Council
of Europe’s 2018-2019 budget. It therefore decides to closely monitor
the Organisation’s budgetary situation and reserves the possibility
to address further recommendations on this matter to the Committee
of Ministers, in particular if the Russian Federation maintains
its position, in 2018, to refuse to fulfil its financial obligations.