After unconditional confirmation of the authority of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the delegations of Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Estonia, and Georgia have announced they will return home to consult their parliaments and governments about the joint actions in the Assembly in the next sessions.
“Yesterday, the Ukrainian delegation to the PACE declared they would walk out. Today Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Estonia and Georgia together stood by Ukraine side by side. The delegations declared the lifting of anti-Russian sanctions is unacceptable. And [there is] a threat from such a decision to the very existence of the PACE. And we now ask our parliaments and governments to make a decision on our future participation in the PACE work,” Ukrainian MP, Ukrainian delegate to the PACE Leonid Yemets wrote on Facebook on June 26 evening.
He also published the text of a joint statement by the seven delegations.
“Today, we as the delegates of our nations have no answer to our people how exactly the CoE [Council of Europe] is protecting their rights if it comes across as more interested in protecting the well-being of an aggressor than the victims of aggression and repression. The future of the CoE is under threat as a whole because the CoE is losing the trust of the people it stands to protect. We return home to consult our Parliaments and Governments about the joint actions in the Assembly in the next sessions,” the text cited by the Ukrainian parliamentarian says.
They say that the unconditional restoration of the Russian delegation’s rights without the Russian Federation honouring any of the Assembly’s numerous demands runs counter to the core values of the Council of Europe and its Statute.
“This step sends a very wrong signal to the country that has resorted to armed aggression, poisoning of individuals, does not observe human rights of its citizens and does not promote but seeks to destabilise democracies throughout Europe,” the statement says.
“We wish good luck to the newly elected Secretary General and hope she/he finds a way to solve this unprecedented crises of trust which was created this week,” it says.
First Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, a member of the Ukrainian delegation to the PACE, MP Iryna Gerashchenko, who also published the text of this statement on Facebook, confirmed it was signed by members of delegations from seven countries.
“This is a statement by members of the delegations of Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,” she said.
The PACE summer session in Strasbourg is being held from June 24 to June 28.
As reported, on June 25, the Ukrainian delegation to the PACE asked the Ukrainian authorities to urgently consider the issue of the termination of Ukraine’s participation in the work of the PACE, as well as the question of Ukraine’s further participation in the Council of Europe bodies.
Member of the Ukrainian parliamentary delegation Oleksiy Honcharenko (Bloc of Petro Poroshenko parliamentary faction) wrote on Facebook the following steps of the Ukrainian delegation to the PACE: “1. We stop our participation in the PACE session, except for challenging the powers of the Russian delegation. 2. We appeal to the Verkhovna Rada to urgently consider the question of the termination of the Ukrainian delegation’s work at the PACE. 3. We appeal to the President and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine for an urgent need to hammer out a position on the participation of Ukraine as a state in the work of the Council of Europe.”
On June 26, the PACE confirmed the authority of the Russian delegation in the Assembly, and a respective resolution does not mention any sanctions, which were earlier imposed on Russia over the annexation of Crimea. Thus, the delegation of the Russian Federation returned to work at the PACE with a full set of powers, which Russia was seeking. Some 116 parliamentarians voted for the resolution, 62 voted against, 15 abstained.
