President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Pedro Agramunt has written a letter of resignation, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine deputy (Petro Poroshenko Bloc member) Volodymyr Ariev has said.
“PACE President Pedro Agramunt, who was seen using Russian government plane to visit Syria earlier this year for a meeting with President Assad, has resigned,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Friday.
“He decided not to wait for the final vote in the Assembly scheduled for Monday, referring to health problems. I congratulate all those involved, this is our joint victory,” Ariev wrote.
The deputy also published a copy of Agramunt’s statement.
As Ariev previously reported, PACE had collected 100 signatures for the resignation of Agramunt. At the same time, to begin the procedure for the resignation of the PACE president, it is enough to collect 60 signatures, and to pass the accelerated procedure – 120 signatures.
The group of the European People’s Party (EPP) in the PACE excluded Agramunt from its membership. In addition, the PACE has made changes to its own regulations, allowing Agramunt to be removed from his post. Voting for his resignation is scheduled for the next session of the PACE, which will be opened on October 9, 2017.
The initiative on the resignation of PACE President Pedro Agramunt appeared after the announcement of his visit to Syria as part of the Russian delegation. Information about this was made public on March 20, 2017. Agramunt admitted his mistake, however, said that he would not voluntarily resign.
