Motion for a recommendation | Doc. 13675 | 23 January 2015

The allocation of seats in the Parliamentary Assembly with respect to Turkey

Signatories: Mr Reha DENEMEÇ, Turkey, EC ; Mr Aydin ABBASOV, Azerbaijan, SOC ; Mr Pedro AGRAMUNT, Spain, EPP/CD ; Lord Donald ANDERSON, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Egemen BAĞIŞ, Turkey, EC ; Lord Richard BALFE, United Kingdom, EC ; Mr Deniz BAYKAL, Turkey, SOC ; Ms Gülsün BİLGEHAN, Turkey, SOC ; Mr Jean-Marie BOCKEL, France, EPP/CD ; Mr Christopher CHOPE, United Kingdom, EC ; Mr James CLAPPISON, United Kingdom, EC ; Mr Ahmet Berat ÇONKAR, Turkey, EC ; Mr Michael CONNARTY, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Arcadio DÍAZ TEJERA, Spain, SOC ; Mr Şaban DİŞLİ, Turkey, EPP/CD ; Lady Diana ECCLES, United Kingdom, EC ; Ms Tülin ERKAL KARA, Turkey, EC ; Mr Jonathan EVANS, United Kingdom, EC ; Ms Sevinj FATALIYEVA, Azerbaijan, EC ; Ms Sahiba GAFAROVA, Azerbaijan, EC ; Mr Mehmet Kasim GÜLPINAR, Turkey, EC ; Mr Nazmi GÜR, Turkey, UEL ; Mr Sabir HAJIYEV, Azerbaijan, SOC ; Mr Ali HUSEYNLI, Azerbaijan, EC ; Mr Rafael HUSEYNOV, Azerbaijan, ALDE ; Mr Fazail İBRAHIMLI, Azerbaijan, ALDE ; Mr Burhan KAYATÜRK, Turkey, EC ; Mr Haluk KOÇ, Turkey, SOC ; Ms Yuliya L'OVOCHKINA, Ukraine, EC ; Mr Fazil MUSTAFA, Azerbaijan, ALDE ; Mr Robert NEILL, United Kingdom, EC ; Mr Brynjar NÍELSSON, Iceland, EC ; Mr Suat ÖNAL, Turkey, EC ; Mr Abdülkadir Emin ÖNEN, Turkey, EC ; Ms Sandra OSBORNE, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Faik ÖZTRAK, Turkey, SOC ; Ms Ganira PASHAYEVA, Azerbaijan, EC ; Mr Rovshan RZAYEV, Azerbaijan, EPP/CD ; Mr Ali ŞAHİN, Turkey, EC ; Mr Ömer SELVİ, Turkey, EC ; Mr Samad SEYIDOV, Azerbaijan, EC ; Mr Elkhan SULEYMANOV, Azerbaijan, EPP/CD ; Mr Mehmet TEKELİOĞLU, Turkey, EC ; Lord John E. TOMLINSON, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Tuğrul TÜRKEŞ, Turkey, EC ; Mr Ahmet Kutalmiş TÜRKEŞ, Turkey, ALDE ; Mr Robert WALTER, United Kingdom, EC ; Baroness Judith WILCOX, United Kingdom, EC ; Mr Jordi XUCLÀ, Spain, ALDE

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

The scale for the allocation of seats in the Parliamentary Assembly among the member States of the Council of Europe was fixed in 1949 on the basis, inter alia, of the population figures available at that time and in terms of Turkish representation it was last revised in 1978.

The most recent population statistics of Turkey point to an increase from approximately 45 million in 1980 to 76 million in 2014, according to projections by the World Bank and the United Nations Population Fund.

The above figure places Turkey’s population in third place among member States of the Council of Europe, after the Russian Federation (143 million) and Germany (80 million); while already surpassing France (66 million), the United Kingdom (64 million) and Italy (60 million), each of which holds 18 seats in the Assembly.

With a view to eliminating the consequences of Turkey’s under-representation, the Assembly should recommend that the Committee of Ministers fixes at 18 the number of seats in the Assembly to which Turkey is entitled and make the necessary consequential amendment to Article 26 of the Statute of the Council of Europe (ETS No. 1).

The Assembly should accordingly also amend Article 28.3 of its Rules of Procedure to include the Turkish language among its working languages.