The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) ought to regain its role as a key inter-parliamentary platform, Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said at a meeting with former PACE Presidents Rene van der Linden and Jean-Claude Mignon in Moscow on June 26.
The meeting was held ahead of the 3rd international
inter-parliamentary forum, due to open at the International Trade Center
in Moscow at noon on June 26.
“I believe that PACE can and should retake its role as a key
inter-parliamentary European platform for equal dialogue of all
Parliamentary Assembly participants aimed at tackling the tasks facing
Europe,” Naryshkin said.
Van der Linden and Mignon made a significant contribution to the
development of constructive cooperation between EU and the Council of
Europe when they headed PACE, he said.
“However, as the last session in April showed, PACE has not been able
so far to cope with this task [play the role of a key
inter-parliamentary platform in Europe],” Naryshkin said.
Naryshkin also said he wants PACE to remain an authoritative European organization.
“All of us should make every effort to prevent the Parliamentary
Assembly from turning into an instrument that would serve
tendency-driven political interests or the interests of individual
states or groups of states,” the Russian MP said.
Russia is ready to resume its dialogue with PACE in full, he said.
“But, at the same time, we certainly cannot allow our interests to be
ignored and cannot permit any dictation in relation to Russia,” he
said.
Naryshkin also said he outlined his stance on these matters in a
letter to PACE President Anne Brasseur, as well as during a telephone
conversation that took place between them at Brasseur’s initiative a
week ago.
“We will certainly resume our full-fledged work within PACE. But this
will happen only if the Russian delegation receives the same rights as
all other delegations,” he said.
PACE acknowledged the powers of the Russian delegation on April 10,
2014, but deprived it of voting rights until the end of this year as a
way of condemnation and disapproval of Russian conduct towards Ukraine.
In response, the Russian delegation to PACE also decided to suspend its
work at the assembly until the end of the year.
Naryshkin said that hopefully, today’s forum will see frank
discussions on new aspects of the “parliamentary dimension” amid the
present-day international situation.
