Photo: nrt24.ru
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe believes that all countries belonging to the organization should have equal rights to participate in the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. This is stressed in a statement issued by the committee on Friday, May 17 in Helsinki, RIA Novosti reports.
According to German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas it was agreed during a bilateral meeting with his counterpart from Russia Sergey Lavrov that Russia should remain in PACE. The German Foreign Minister is convinced that it is a right thing to do since in this case Russians will be able to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
At the same time, Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy, does not that the Russian delegation should necessarily return to the Parliamentary Assembly. Tolstoy called it an important political step towards resolving of the crisis. However, it is still necessary to adopt two important amendments to the regulations, he added. One of them is a fundamental condition on which Moscow insist – the exclusion of the possibility of applying discriminatory sanctions against any national delegation.
The statement lays the groundwork for the adoption of amendments. Now it's up to the Parliamentary Assembly, which should support these changes to the regulations. The Russophobic aggressive minority still has a much louder voice there than the voice of reason, the parliamentarian summed up.
Russkiy Mir
