Council Of Europe May Soon Debate Resolution On Russia's PACE Membership - Lawmaker

A Council of Europe conference may debate next month parts of a resolution that proposes bringing Russia back to the Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), its author told Sputnik on Wednesday

ST.PETERSBURG (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th April, 2019) A Council of Europe conference may debate next month parts of a resolution that proposes bringing Russia back to the Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), its author told Sputnik on Wednesday.

PACE passed the resolution by a two-thirds majority last week. The document also urges Russia to pay membership fees and proposes ways of dealing with member countries that do not live up to their obligations.

"In the debate last week I referred to my report and its resolution and recommendation as indeed 'a roadmap,' with new ways to overcome the actual political and financial crisis and to strengthen the Council of Europe ... The recommendation - which includes several other relevant proposals - will be discussed in the upcoming Ministerial Conference in Helsinki," Tiny Kox said.

Kox, a Dutch senator who chairs the Group of the Unified European Left at PACE, said he was open to suggestions from all sides that would make this roadmap more concrete and a solution more realistic.

"As I said in the debate, a solution via my 'roadmap' would mean win-win: for the member states, the member states parliaments and the whole organization," he stressed.

The legislator said he was going to raise his recommendations at a meeting with Russian politicians in St. Petersburg this week.

"This week I will attend the St. Petersburg international conference on counter-terrorism and I hope to use the opportunity to meet with some relevant Russian politicians to listen to their comments on the now adopted resolution and recommendation," he said.

Russia was barred from voting within the assembly after Crimea left Ukraine for Russia as a result of a historic referendum in 2014. It walked out of PACE sessions and stopped paying fees to the council in June 2017, in a move that cost PACE 1.5 million Euros ($1.68 million). Council of Europe chief Thorbjorn Jagland warned Russia that it could be expelled in summer 2019 for repeatedly defaulting on payments.