Written declaration No. 712 | Doc. 15103 | 29 April 2020

Pan-European solidarity in times of fight against the COVID-19 pandemic

Signatories: Mr Petr TOLSTOI, Russian Federation, NR ; Ms Ulviyye AGHAYEVA, Azerbaijan, NR ; Mr Anatoly AKSAKOV, Russian Federation, NR ; Ms Alena ARSHINOVA, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Sos AVETISYAN, Armenia, SOC ; Mr Aleksandr BASHKIN, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Miljan DAMJANOVIĆ, Serbia, NR ; Mr Andrey EPISHIN, Russian Federation, NR ; Ms Christiana EROTOKRITOU, Cyprus, SOC ; Mr Iván ESPINOSA DE LOS MONTEROS, Spain, EC/DA ; Mr Sergey FABRICHNYY, Russian Federation, NR ; Ms Sevinj FATALIYEVA, Azerbaijan, EC/DA ; Mr Javanshir FEYZIYEV, Azerbaijan, NR ; Ms Vera GANZIA, Russian Federation, UEL ; Mr Sabir HAJIYEV, Azerbaijan, SOC ; Mr Nagif HAMZAYEV, Azerbaijan, NR ; Ms Tatevik HAYRAPETYAN, Armenia, EPP/CD ; Mr Rafael HUSEYNOV, Azerbaijan, ALDE ; Mr Igor KAGRAMANYAN, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Leonid KALASHNIKOV, Russian Federation, UEL ; Mr Sergey KALASHNIKOV, Russian Federation, UEL ; Mr Belan KHAMCHIEV, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Sergey KISLYAK, Russian Federation, NR ; Ms Alfiia KOGOGINA, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Aleksei KONDRATEV, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Vladimir KOZHIN, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Maksim KUDRIAVTSEV, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Sergey LISOVSKIY, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Edmon MARUKYAN, Armenia, ALDE ; Mr Asim MOLLAZADA, Azerbaijan, EC/DA ; Mr Fazil MUSTAFA, Azerbaijan, NR ; Mr Iaroslav NILOV, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Yury OLEINIKOV, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Sergei PAKHOMOV, Russian Federation, NR ; Ms Ganira PASHAYEVA, Azerbaijan, NR ; Mr Valery PONOMAREV, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Alexandr PROKOPIEV, Russian Federation, NR ; Ms Oksana PUSHKINA, Russian Federation, NR ; Ms Irina RODNINA, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Roman ROMANENKO, Russian Federation, NR ; Ms Irina RUKAVISHNIKOVA, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Nikolai RYZHAK, Russian Federation, UEL ; Ms Elena SEROVA, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Aleksandar ŠEŠELJ, Serbia, NR ; Mr Leonid SLUTSKIY, Russian Federation, NR ; Ms Olga STAROSTINA, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Artur TAYMAZOV, Russian Federation, NR ; Mr Dmitrii VASILENKO, Russian Federation, NR ; Ms Naira ZOHRABYAN, Armenia, EC/DA

This written declaration commits only those who have signed it.

We, the undersigned, declare the following:

The Council of Europe member States are undergoing probably the most difficult period since the coming into existence of our Organisation. At present, people are dying and they are in need of a concrete and immediate expression of solidarity from European institutions.

The Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly were not created to provide humanitarian assistance. However, during these exceptional times, exceptional measures are necessary. European solidarity needs to be expressed not only in words, but in real deeds.

The April 2020 part-session of the Assembly and other meetings have been or will be cancelled. It results in savings in the Assembly budget. We propose to determine as quickly as possible the scale of these savings and send money urgently to the most affected European countries to help them fight the epidemic. This assistance will unfortunately represent only a fraction of what is needed, but it will certainly help save invaluable human lives.

As savings from cancelled or not implemented activities will also be available at the scale of the whole Organisation, we call on the Committee of Ministers to take similar humanitarian action.