Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, an international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The 47-nation Council of Europe is an older and wider circle of nations than the 28-member European Union - it includes, for example, Russia and Turkey among its member states - and oversees the European Court of Human Rights.
The Assembly is made up of 324 parliamentarians from the national parliaments of the Council of Europe's member states, and generally meets four times a year for week-long plenary sessions in Strasbourg. It is one of the two statutory bodies of the Council of Europe, along with the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the executive body representing governments.
The Assembly held its first session in Strasbourg on 10 August 1949, making it one of the oldest international assemblies in Europe. Among its main achievements are:
- ending the death penalty in Europe by requiring new members to abolish it
- making possible, and shaping, the European Convention on Human Rights
- high-profile reports exposing violations of human rights in Council of Europe member states
- assisting former Soviet countries to embrace democracy after 1989
- inspiring and helping to shape many progressive new national laws
- helping member states to overcome conflict and reach consensus on divisive political or social issues
Contents
Powers[edit]
Unlike the European Parliament (an institution of the European Union), the Assembly does not have the power to create binding laws. However, it speaks on behalf of 820 million Europeans and has the power to:
- demand action from the 47 Council of Europe governments, who - via the CoE's executive body - must jointly reply
- probe human rights violations in any of the member states
- question Prime Ministers and Heads of State on any subject
- send parliamentarians to observe elections and mediate over crises
- set the terms on which states may join the Council of Europe, through its power of veto
- inspire, propose and help to shape new national laws
- request legal evaluations of the laws and constitutions of member states
- sanction a member state by recommending its exclusion or suspension
Important statutory functions of the PACE are the election of the judges of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and the members of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture.
In general the Assembly meets four times per year in Strasbourg at the Palace of Europe for week-long plenary sessions. The nine permanent committees of the Assembly meet all year long to prepare reports and draft resolutions in their respective fields of expertise.
The Assembly sets its own agenda, but its debates and reports are primarily focused on defending human rights, promoting democracy, protecting minorities and upholding the rule of law.
Election of judges to the European Court of Human Rights[edit]
Judges of the European Court of Human Rights are elected by PACE from a list of three candidates nominated by each member state which has ratified the European Convention on Human Rights. Although the European Convention does not, in itself, require member states to present a multi-sex shortlist of potential appointees, in a 2004 resolution aimed at improving the gender balance of the Court, PACE decided that it ‘will not consider lists of candidates where the list does not include at least one candidate of each sex’ unless there are exceptional circumstances .[1] A 20-member committee – meeting in camera – interviews all candidates for judge on the Court and assesses their CVs before making recommendations to the full Assembly, which elects one judge from each shortlist in a secret vote.[2]
Members[edit]
The Assembly has a total of 648 members – 324 principal members and 324 substitutes[3] – who are appointed or elected by the parliaments of each member state. Delegations must reflect the balance in the national parliament, so contain members of both ruling parties and oppositions. While not full members, the parliaments of Kyrgyzstan, Jordan, Morocco and Palestine hold "Partner for Democracy" status with the Assembly, and there are also observer delegates from the Canadian, Israeli and Mexican parliaments. The population of each country determines its number of representatives and number of votes. This is in contrast to the Committee of Ministers, the Council of Europe's executive body, where each country has one vote.
Some notable former members of PACE include:
- former heads of state or government such as Britain's wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, former Turkish President Abdullah Gül, former Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides, former Finnish President Tarja Halonen, former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, former Albanian President Sali Berisha, and many others.[4]
- Dick Marty (Switzerland), appointed in late 2005 as rapporteur to investigate the CIA extraordinary renditions scandal and organ theft in Kosovo by the Kosovo Liberation Army from the Kosovo war, in 1998–2001[5]
- Marcello Dell'Utri (Italy), convicted for complicity in conspiracy with the Mafia (Italian: concorso in associazione mafiosa), a crime for which he was found guilty on appeal and sentenced to 7 years in 2010.[6]
Composition by parliamentary delegation[edit]
| Parliament | Seats | Accession date |
|---|---|---|
 Albania |
4 | 1995 |
 Andorra |
2 | 1994 |
 Armenia |
4 | 2001 |
 Austria |
6 | 1956 |
 Azerbaijan |
6 | 2001 |
 Belgium |
7 | 1949 |
 Bosnia and Herzegovina |
5 | 2002 |
 Bulgaria |
6 | 1992 |
 Croatia |
5 | 1996 |
 Cyprus |
3 | 1961 - 1964, 1984 |
 Czech Republic |
7 | 1991 |
 Denmark |
5 | 1949 |
 Estonia |
3 | 1993 |
 Finland |
5 | 1989 |
 France |
18 | 1949 |
 Georgia |
5 | 1999 |
 Germany |
18 | 1951 |
 Greece |
7 | 1949 |
 Hungary |
7 | 1990 |
 Iceland |
3 | 1959 |
 Ireland |
4 | 1949 |
 Italy |
18 | 1949 |
 Latvia |
3 | 1995 |
 Liechtenstein |
2 | 1978 |
 Lithuania |
4 | 1993 |
 Luxembourg |
3 | 1949 |
 Macedonia |
3 | 1995 |
 Malta |
3 | 1965 |
 Moldova |
5 | 1995 |
 Monaco |
2 | 2004 |
 Montenegro |
3 | 2007[7] |
 Netherlands |
7 | 1949 |
 Norway |
5 | 1949 |
 Poland |
12 | 1991 |
 Portugal |
7 | 1976 |
 Romania |
10 | 1993 |
 Russia |
18[8] | 1996 |
 San Marino |
2 | 1988 |
 Serbia |
7 | 2003 |
 Slovakia |
5 | 1993[9] |
 Slovenia |
3 | 1993 |
 Spain |
12 | 1977 |
 Sweden |
6 | 1949 |
 Switzerland |
6 | 1963 |
 Turkey |
18 | 1949 |
 Ukraine |
12 | 1995 |
 United Kingdom |
18 | 1949 |
The special guest status of the National Assembly of Belarus was suspended on 13 January 1997.
Parliaments with observer status[edit]
| Parliament | Seats | Date |
|---|---|---|
 Canada |
6 | 1996[10] |
 Israel |
3 | ? |
 Mexico |
6 | 1999 |
Parliaments with Partner for Democracy status[edit]
| Parliament | Seats | Date |
|---|---|---|
 Morocco |
6 | 2011 |
 Palestine |
3 | 2011[11] |
 Kyrgyzstan |
3 | 2014[12] |
 Jordan |
3 | 2016[13] |
Parliamentarians with observer status[edit]
| Parliamentarians | Seats | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Turkish Cypriot Community | 2 | 2004[14][15][16][17] |
Composition by political group[edit]
The Assembly has five political groups.[18]
Languages[edit]
The official languages of the Council of Europe are English and French, but the Assembly also uses German, Italian, Russian and Turkish as working languages.[19]
Presidents[edit]
The presidents of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have been :
The Assembly elected Wojciech Sawicki (Poland)[20] as its Secretary General in 2010 for a five-year term of office which began in February 2011. In 2015 he was re-elected for a second five-year term, which began in February 2016.
Controversy[edit]
Russia suspension[edit]
In April 2014, after the Russian parliament's backing for the occupation of Crimea and Russian military intervention in Ukraine, the Assembly decided to suspend the Russian delegation's voting rights as well as the right of Russian members to be represented in the Assembly's leading bodies and to participate in election observation missions. However, the Russian delegation remained members of the Assembly. The sanction applied throughout the remainder of the 2014 session and was renewed for a full year in January 2015, lapsing in January 2016.
In response, the Russian parliamentary delegation suspended its co-operation with PACE in June 2014, and in January 2016 - despite the lapsing of the sanctions - decided not to submit its credentials for ratification, effectively leaving its seats empty.
The sanctions applied only to Russian parliamentarians in PACE, the Council of Europe's parliamentary body. Russia continues to be a full member of the Council of Europe, and retains full rights in the organisation's other bodies, including its statutory executive body, the Committee of Ministers.[21]
Alleged corruption[edit]
In 2013, the New York Times reported that “some council members, notably Central Asian states and Russia, have tried to influence the organization’s parliamentary assembly with lavish gifts and trips”.[22] According to the report, said member states also hire lobbyists to fend off criticism of their human rights records.[23] German news magazine Der Spiegel had earlier revealed details about the strategies of Azerbaijan’s government to influence the voting behaviour of selected members of the Parliamentary Assembly.[24] As a consequence to the allegations, Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland has made the fight against corruption his big challenge.[25]
Cultural divisions[edit]
Although the Council of Europe is a human rights watchdog and a guardian against discrimination, it is widely regarded as becoming increasingly divided on moral issues because its membership includes mainly Muslim Turkey as well as East European countries, among them Russia, where social conservatism is strong.[26] In 2007, this became evident when the Parliamentary Assembly voted on a report compiled by Liberal Democrat Anne Brasseur on the rise of Christian creationism, bolstered by right-wing and populist parties in Eastern Europe.[26]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Adelaide Remiche (August 12, 2012), Election of the new Belgian Judge to the ECtHR: An all-male short list demonstrates questionable commitment to gender equality Oxford Human Rights Hub, University of Oxford.
- ^ PACE creates a special committee for the election of judges to the European Court of Human Rights, 24/06/2014.
- ^ This number is fixed by article 26.
- ^ "Members since 1949".
- ^ "Council of Europe". coe.int. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ^ http://www.rainews24.rai.it/it/news.php?newsid=142469
- ^ previously part of Serbia and Montenegro: member since 2003
- ^ http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/News/News-View-en.asp?newsid=5980&lang=2
- ^ Previously part of Czechoslovakia, member since 1991
- ^ "Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly". coe.int. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ^ http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-Xref-ViewPDF.asp?FileID=18022&lang=en
- ^ "PACE: News". coe.int. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ^ "PACE grants Jordan's Parliament Partner for Democracy Status". coe.int. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
- ^ "Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce". ktto.net. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ^ "Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly". coe.int. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ^ "Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly". coe.int. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ^ James Ker-Lindsay The Foreign Policy of Counter Secession: Preventing the Recognition of Contested States, p.149: "...despite strong opposition from the Cypriot government, The Turkish Cypriot community was awarded observer status in the PACE"
- ^ "Political groups".
- ^ "Turkey's presence at Council of Europe increased". DailySabah. 24 May 2015.
- ^ "Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly". coe.int. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- ^ "Russia suspended from Council of Europe body". EuropeanVoice. 10 April 2014.
- ^ Judy Dempsey (February 4, 2013), Corruption Undermining Democracy in Europe New York Times.
- ^ Judy Dempsey (April 27, 2012), Where a Glitzy Pop Contest Takes Priority Over Rights International Herald Tribune.
- ^ Ralf Neukirch (January 4, 2012), A Dictator's Dream: Azerbaijan Seeks to Burnish Image Ahead of Eurovision Der Spiegel.
- ^ Judy Dempsey (February 4, 2013), Corruption Undermining Democracy in Europe New York Times.
- ^ a b Stephen Castle (October 4, 2007), European lawmakers condemn efforts to teach creationism International Herald Tribune.
Further reading[edit]
- (French) Le Conseil de l'Europe, Jean-Louis Burban, publisher PUF, collection « Que sais-je ? », n° 885.
External links[edit]
| Institutions |
 |
|
|---|---|---|
| Members |
|
|
| Observers | ||
| Former members | ||
|
1 Provisionally referred to by the Council of Europe as "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia"; see Macedonia naming dispute.
|
||
