The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today, January 28, has decided to turn down the initiative of the Ukrainian delegates to apply restrictions to the Russian delegation over the actions breaching the principles of the Council of Europe.
As part of the consideration of the draft resolution authored by Austrian MP Stefan Schennach, prepared in response to the appeal against the powers of the Russian delegation, the PACE refused to support Ukraine's amendment asking the Assembly to not ratify the powers of the Russian delegation.
The relevant amendment was opposed by 115 legislators, with only 37 supporting it and seven abstaining.
At the same time, Stefan Schennach's resolution allowing Russian delegation's work saw support of 107 deputies, with 36 against and 24 abstained.
Read alsoPACE backs Ukraine's initiative to contest Russian delegation's credentialsOn Thursday morning, the PACE Monitoring Committee reviewed the proposals and rejected all draft amendments, including those not related to the introduction of sanctions.
Russia in PACE: Previous developments
In April 2014, PACE stripped the Russian delegation of the right to vote and expelled its representatives from all governing bodies of the Assembly over the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea.
Russia then refused to pay contributions to the Council of Europe as of June 2017. Many PACE members and politicians called such actions of Russia blackmail.
On June 25, 2019, PACE adopted a resolution that canceled the existing mechanism for imposing sanctions against delegations.
On June 26, 2019, PACE voted to ratify the credentials of the Russian delegation without imposing any sanctions. This allowed Russia to return to the Assembly's session hall, and it reportedly resumed paying its contributions.
On January 25, PACE backed Ukraine's initiative to appeal the credentials of the Russian delegation.
