PACE committee adopts draft resolution that may change rules to benefit of Russia

03.06.2019 17:20

Ukrinform

The committee on rules of procedure of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has adopted a draft resolution which may complicate the imposition of sanctions on the Russian delegation and ensure its possible return to the PACE without fulfilling international obligations.

Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the PACE Volodymyr Ariev announced this following the committee’s sitting in Paris on Monday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The committee on rules of procedure has adopted a draft resolution that may change the rules of the PACE. The vote will take place at the PACE session on June 24. It is a bad option that complicates the sanction procedure but does not completely eliminate it as demanded by the Russians," Ariev wrote on Facebook.

He stressed that "even if the resolution is voted, the possibility of introducing sanctions, albeit in a truncated version, will remain." "We were against, but many of those who voted for the resolution said that the Russians could accept the proposed compromise, because ‘they must finally be criticized in the face since they do not change.’ A naive attitude, to put it mildly," Ariev noted.

He added that Russia’s supporters argued that "140 million Russians should be given access to the European Court of Human Rights."

"I was indignant at that argument because Ukrainians gave their freedom and lives to get that access," the head of the delegation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the PACE said.