Russia: Council of Europe

(asked on 23rd April 2018) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what criteria he plans to use to decide whether to support lifting the suspension of Russian credentials at the council of Europe.


Answered by
Alan Duncan Portrait
Alan Duncan
This question was answered on 26th April 2018

​In accordance with its status as a statutory body of the Council of Europe and independent from the Committee of Ministers, the decision is a matter for the Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) to decide. PACE has made clear its own criteria for Russia to return which are laid down in the its own resolution requirements. PACE has not suspended Russia; the decision was taken by Russia since 2015 not to present credentials for its own Delegation in response to voting restrictions placed upon them by PACE following the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. The UK is clear that a Russian return to PACE would be contingent on the withdrawal of all Russian military personnel and support for separatists in Eastern Ukraine, as well as an end to the illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula.

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