The credentials of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) have been challenged on substantive grounds (Rule 8 of the Rules of Procedure) on the opening day of the 2021 “hybrid” winter plenary session.
The challenge – made by the head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Assembly Mariia Mezentseva (Ukraine, EPP/CD) – was supported by at least thirty members of the Assembly, belonging to at least five national delegations, as required by the Rules.
The Assembly will debate the issue at 9 a.m. on Thursday 28 January on the basis of a report by its Monitoring Committee and must, under Rule 10 of the Rules of Procedure, vote for one of three options: to ratify the credentials, not to ratify them, or to ratify them “together with depriving or suspending the exercise of some of the rights of participation or representation of members of the delegation concerned in the activities of the Assembly and its bodies”.
The members of the Russian delegation may sit provisionally with the same rights as other Assembly members until the Assembly has reached a decision, but may not vote on their own credentials.
Read also
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe