The Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), meeting yesterday in Prague, appointed the three members of the independent external investigation body to look into allegations of corruption within PACE, namely:
– Sir Nicolas Bratza (United Kingdom), former judge and former President of the European Court of Human Rights
– Jean-Louis Bruguière (France), former judge in charge of investigations in particular on cases related to terrorism, expert with international organisations and states on anti-terrorism issues
– Elisabet Fura (Sweden), former judge at the European Court of Human Rights and former chief parliamentary Ombudsman of Sweden, legal adviser
This decision is to be ratified by the Assembly in the framework of the Progress report, which is due to be debated on 26 June by the Assembly during its next plenary session (26-30 June 2017).
On 28 April, the Assembly ratified the terms of reference of the investigation body, whose purpose is to carry out an external independent inquiry into the allegations of corruption and fostering of interests made against certain members or former members of the Assembly.