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Resolution 2277 (2019)
Role and mission of the Parliamentary Assembly: main challenges for the future
1. The Parliamentary Assembly refers
to its Resolution 2186
(2017) on the call for a Council of Europe summit to
reaffirm European unity and to defend and promote democratic security
in Europe and reiterates that the Council of Europe, set up seventy
years ago to achieve a greater unity among its member States on
the basis of common values and principles, is today more necessary
than ever to help meet major challenges in and resolve issues among
the 47 member States, as well as to avoid creating new dividing
lines.
2. The Parliamentary Assembly, as one of the two statutory organs
of the Council of Europe, has itself played an essential role in
developing European unity within diversity. It has largely contributed
to the enlargement process of the Organisation since the fall of
the Berlin Wall, in particular through the preparation of accession
opinions for the other statutory organ, the Committee of Ministers,
including a list of specific commitments undertaken by the authorities
of the candidate States following negotiations with Assembly rapporteurs.
3. Thus, the Assembly, with its pluralistic composition of members
of national parliaments, has become a unique, permanent and structured
pan-European forum for interparliamentary dialogue among representatives of
the citizens from all 47 member States with an important deliberative
role regarding the many issues which fall within the aim and scope
of the Organisation (Articles 1 and 3 of the Statute of the Council
of Europe, ETS No. 1).
4. The Assembly refers to its Recommendation 2114 (2017) “Defending
the acquis of the Council
of Europe: preserving 65 years of successful intergovernmental co-operation”
and recalls that the Assembly, being “the political engine” of the
Organisation, shares with the Committee of Ministers and member
States the responsibility for the development of the unique convention
system of the Council of Europe, which has substantially helped
to “improve the functioning of democratic institutions in Europe,
to develop the rule of law throughout Europe and to protect and
promote the rights of all European citizens and inhabitants”.
5. Having the obligation, under the European Convention on Human
Rights (ETS No. 5), to elect the judges to the European Court of
Human Rights, and having significantly contributed to the process
of ensuring the execution of the Court’s judgments by member States,
the Assembly plays – together with the Court and the Committee of
Ministers, which has the primary responsibility for overseeing the
execution of the Court’s judgments – a major role in the unique
European system of the protection of human rights, the rule of law
and democracy, which has become a beacon for the rest for the world.
6. The Assembly’s role as Europe’s guardian of human rights and
democracy is further fulfilled through intensive fact-finding and
election observation missions, as well as thematic or country-specific
reports on the state of human rights, social rights, the rule of
law and democracy in member States. These reports include concrete
recommendations to the governments and parliaments of the States
concerned – either directly or through recommendations to the Committee
of Ministers – for the purpose of ensuring compliance with their binding
obligations stemming from the Statute, the European Convention on
Human Rights, the judgments of the Court and all other conventions
to which they are a party.
7. However, seventy years after it was founded, the Council of
Europe is in a deep political and financial crisis. It finds itself
confronted with many challenges which seriously threaten the effectiveness
of its statutory organs and of its mechanisms and instruments, and
thus ultimately the statutory aims of the Organisation: dangerous
conflicts within and between member States persist instead of being
resolved by using, inter alia, the
means of the Organisation; the multilateral implementation of international
human rights standards, including through the European Court of
Human Rights, is increasingly being challenged in member States; the
respect for the Organisation’s Statute and the European Convention
on Human Rights is weakening; and the Assembly itself has not yet
been able to effectively assist in overcoming these crises.
8. As regards the Council of Europe’s pan-European mission, the
intended “unity within diversity” has, as of 2014, been seriously
put into question following the illegal annexation of Crimea by
the Russian Federation, an act considered to be a clear violation
of international law and the Council of Europe’s Statute. Russia’s decision
to stop participating in the activities of the Assembly, in reaction
to the Assembly’s decision to apply sanctions vis-à-vis Russia’s
parliamentary delegation, has led to a rift within the Organisation
with one member State being present in one statutory organ, the
Committee of Ministers, while being absent in the other, the Assembly.
As of June 2017, the Russian Government’s decision, in reaction
to this situation, to suspend payment of its contribution to the
budget of the Organisation has led to a major budgetary crisis threatening
the Council of Europe’s key activities.
9. To face these challenges, promote security in Europe, reinvigorate
trust in the Council of Europe and among member States and ensure
the future of the Organisation, the Assembly:
9.1. calls on all member States to reaffirm, seventy years
after the foundation of the Organisation, their commitment to the
ideal of European unity and the values and principles of democracy,
human rights and the rule of law, and support and further strengthen
the Council of Europe as a unique pan-European organisation which
upholds these values for the benefit of European citizens;
9.2. underlines that Council of Europe membership implies an
obligation for all member States to participate in both statutory
organs;
9.3. calls on the Russian Federation, in accordance with its
statutory obligations, to appoint a delegation to the Assembly and
to resume obligatory payment of its contribution to the Organisation’s budget,
failure of which may lead to the suspension of its representation
rights in both statutory organs, should the Committee of Ministers
decide to apply Article 9 of the Statute;
9.4. calls for intensified dialogue among all actors concerned
in order to preserve the pan-European mission of the Council of
Europe and avoid a situation in which the biggest member State would
be asked to, or would choose to, leave the Organisation, with all
the geopolitical implications and concrete consequences for Russian
citizens this would have; welcomes in this respect the commitment
and efforts made by the Finnish Presidency of the Committee of Ministers;
9.5. calls on the governments of member States to consider
all available options to ensure the political relevance and financial
sustainability of the Organisation so as to avoid seriously undermining
its activities and thereby its effectiveness;
9.6. calls on its members to put this issue on the agenda of
their national parliaments as a matter of urgency and urge their
governments to act responsibly, in line with their obligations under
the Council of Europe Statute, so as to ensure the Organisation’s
financial sustainability.
10. For its part, during these challenging times for the Organisation,
the Assembly resolves to streamline, restructure and modernise its
work and focus its activities on issues within the aim and scope
of the Council of Europe which are politically relevant and likely
to have an impact on the work of the Organisation and/or in the member
States, for the benefit of European citizens.
11. Therefore, the Assembly, on the basis also of the findings
of the Ad hoc Committee of its Bureau on the role and mission of
the Parliamentary Assembly, considers that its work and activities
should primarily focus on:
11.1. promoting
the strengthening and further development of the Organisation’s
unique convention system, which has greatly contributed to the creation
of a single legal space across the 47 member States, to the benefit
of their citizens; this priority also includes the implementation
of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and of recommendations
issued by the Organisation’s standard-setting, monitoring and advisory
bodies, as well as by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights;
11.2. helping to identify to what extent the current Council
of Europe legal instruments should be prioritised and revised or
whether new ones should be drafted, existing ones strengthened or implemented
more effectively, or suspended because they have become obsolete,
in order to better respond to new societal challenges or situations
such as: artificial intelligence, the ever-increasing use of social
media, disinformation, radicalisation and new phenomena linked to
terrorism, climate change, migration and refugees;
11.3. promoting women’s and children’s rights and gender equality,
and applying a human rights and gender-sensitive approach;
11.4. developing further and increasing its election observation
tools and missions, in close co-operation with the European Commission
for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), in order to improve
the legal framework of its member States on elections and referendums,
electoral practice and compliance by member States with relevant
recommendations;
11.5. defending the Organisation’s system of values and standards
against undemocratic and illiberal trends, political extremism and
aggressive nationalism, discrimination, xenophobia, hate speech
and other threats to the rule of law;
11.6. promoting the Council of Europe values of human rights,
rule of law and democratic principles also in the Council of Europe’s
neighbourhood as a means of improving living conditions and stability
in these regions and thus contributing to security and stability
on the European continent.
12. In light of the above considerations, the Assembly;
12.1. resolves to review, based on
proposals by its committees, their mandate, work programme and institutional
representation in intergovernmental committees and other Council
of Europe bodies in order to verify their political relevance and
added value;
12.2. invites its committees to focus, in their reports, on
proposals which can be translated into tangible action by the intergovernmental
sector of the Organisation (standard-setting, advisory or monitoring bodies)
so as to enhance their impact and visibility, and to accompany,
where appropriate, criticism addressed to member States (on failures
in the legislative field or in the implementation of legislation,
or on violations of human rights, democratic principles and the
rule of law) with proposals for support activities aimed at addressing
these shortcomings or lack of compliance; in both cases, such proposals should
be forwarded to the other statutory organ, the Committee of Ministers,
through recommendations adopted by the Assembly.
13. Enhanced impact and visibility of the Assembly’s work is only
possible if the decisions it takes are being followed up, in particular
by or through national parliaments. In this respect, the Assembly,
on the basis of the findings of the Ad hoc Committee of its Bureau
on the role and mission of the Parliamentary Assembly, and referring
also to its Resolution
1640 (2008) “Use by Assembly members of their dual parliamentary
role – both parliamentary and European”, calls on:
13.1. the Secretary General of the
Parliamentary Assembly to ensure that speakers of national parliaments
are regularly informed of conclusions and proposals made in Assembly
resolutions, especially those concerning their own country;
13.2. national parliamentary delegations to the Assembly to
regularly report to their parliaments on their activities in the
Assembly, preferably after each part-session, and to inform the
Assembly’s Bureau of the national follow-up given to Assembly resolutions
at least once a year;
13.3. Assembly rapporteurs, in case of follow-up to country-specific
proposals, to prepare, with the active involvement of the national
delegation concerned, a memorandum on the follow-up given by the national
parliaments and governments to their report, at the latest one year
after its adoption by the Assembly;
13.4. its committees to increase their contacts with the relevant
committees of national parliaments, including exchanges of views
between respective chairpersons and/or rapporteurs;
13.5. political groups in the Assembly to encourage their members
to ensure appropriate follow-up of the resolutions the group considers
relevant and to consider creating their own follow-up mechanisms;
13.6. all its members to promote awareness and follow-up of
Assembly and, more generally, Council of Europe activities, by explaining
to their electorate the direct impact these activities may have
on their daily life and acting as catalysts to change the mindsets
of the electorate on a number of ethical issues.
14. Wishing to enhance the consistency and effectiveness of the
decisions and activities of the Council of Europe and aware of the
importance of local democracy and the central role that local and
regional authorities play in relations with citizens, the Assembly
decides to initiate a reflection on mechanisms for periodical consultations
and permanent co-operation between the Parliamentary Assembly and
the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of
Europe and their structures.
15. The Assembly notes that the Ad hoc Committee of its Bureau
on the role and mission of the Parliamentary Assembly underlined
the need to step up the political dialogue between the Assembly
and the Committee of Ministers. It would in particular be necessary
to promote synergies between the two statutory organs while respecting
each other’s prerogatives. In this respect, the Assembly:
15.1. welcomes the fact that contacts
and dialogue with the Committee of Ministers have significantly intensified
recently, at different levels and in different formats;
15.2. referring also to its Resolution 2186 (2017), as well
as to the 1998 Committee of Wise Persons Final
Report to the Committee of Ministers, notes that there
is an urgent need to develop synergies and provide for joint action
by the two statutory organs in order to strengthen the Organisation’s
ability to react more effectively in situations where a member State
violates its statutory obligations or does not respect the fundamental
principles and values upheld by the Council of Europe;
15.3. proposes to put into place, in such situations, in addition,
a joint response procedure which could be triggered by either the
Parliamentary Assembly, the Committee of Ministers or the Secretary
General and in which all three of them would participate; this joint
procedure could consist of a step-by-step process, starting with
the notification of the member State concerned and including a number
of concrete and well-defined steps such as co-ordinated dialogue
with the State concerned, the setting-up of a special monitoring
procedure, enhanced by a joint task force, the publication of a
public statement and ultimately the decision to act under Articles
7, 8 or 9 of the Statute; a strict time frame would have to be fixed
for each step by common agreement of the three parties; this joint
procedure would ensure enhanced legitimacy, credibility, impact,
relevance and synergy of the measures to be taken, both regarding
the member State concerned and within the Organisation, without
prejudice to each organ’s existing separate powers and responsibilities;
political action could also be combined, where appropriate, with
technical support to the State concerned;
15.4. calls for a stronger and more structured co-ordination
between the monitoring activities of the Assembly, the Committee
of Ministers, the Secretary General and the Commissioner for Human
Rights, as well as of the various specialised monitoring and advisory
bodies and mechanisms of the Organisation, without prejudice to
their independence.
16. As regards the need to step up political dialogue between
the Assembly and the European Union, the Assembly:
16.1. considers that promotion of
European Union accession to the European Convention on Human Rights
should remain at the forefront of its political dialogue with the
various European Union institutions as it will lead to a common
legal space for human rights protection across the continent in
the interest of all Europeans; welcomes the declared commitment,
at the highest political level, from both the Council of Europe
and the European Union institutions, in favour of this accession,
which is a long-standing legal obligation for the European Union
under the Lisbon Treaty with undeniable political consequences; urges
the European Commission to transform this commitment into concrete
action by submitting without further delay to the Council of the
European Union consolidated proposals in reply to the legal issues
raised by the Court of Justice of the European Union in December
2014, which would then be discussed in the framework of negotiations
with the Council of Europe;
16.2. welcomes the European Commission Communication entitled
“Further strengthening the Rule of Law within the Union” published
on 3 April 2019, which includes several references to the work of
the Council of Europe, in line also with the 2006 report “Council of Europe-European
Union: a sole ambition for the European continent” and
the 2007
Memorandum of Understanding between the Council of Europe and the
European Union, and opens the way for the Council of
Europe to advance concrete proposals on how to enhance the European
Union rule of law toolbox; these proposals should also refer to
relevant work by the Assembly, emanating from its Committee on the
Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the
Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee) or its general committees,
in particular country-specific findings and recommendations included
in country-specific or thematic reports and resolutions;
16.3. encourages ongoing discussions about the possibility for
the European Union to make a non-earmarked contribution to the Council
of Europe’s work on the rule of law;
16.4. calls for increased participation of senior European Union
officials, including European Commissioners, in relevant debates
in the Assembly, as well as for more frequent exchanges of views between
its committees and relevant committees from the European Parliament;
16.5. recalls its Resolution
1836 (2011) on the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the
Council of Europe and reiterates the proposals to set up an Assembly–European
Parliament joint informal body to discuss topical issues of common
interest, with a variable composition; organise, jointly with the
European Parliament, interparliamentary conferences on specific
topics of common interest; and enhance co-operation in joint electoral
observation missions;
17. As regards co-operation with other international and/or regional
organisations, the Assembly:
17.1. refers
to its Resolution 2271
(2019) on strengthening co-operation with the United
Nations in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which commits the Assembly to
regularly reviewing the implementation of Sustainable Development
Goals and fully playing its role as a platform for exchanging national
experience and good practice, as well as to its Resolution 2272 (2019) “Implementation
of the Sustainable Development Goals: synergy needed on the part
of all stakeholders, from parliaments to local authorities”, which
seeks to mobilise national parliaments and local and regional authorities
in support of Sustainable Development Goals;
17.2. welcomes the measures recently agreed with the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which provide
for a stronger and more efficient institutional relationship between the
two organisations, streamline procedures and make better use of
both organisations’ strengths;
17.3. considers it timely to evaluate its co-operation agreements
with various international parliamentary assemblies or organisations
with a view to possibly updating them and enhancing their effectiveness.