MOSCOW, March 16. /TASS/. The majority of the members of the ad hoc Committee of the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called for the restoration of dialogue with Russia, despite the attempt of the British representative to remove Russia from the discussion. This was announced on Friday by Vice-speaker of the state Duma Pyotr Tolstoy after the meeting of the ad hoc Committee considering changes to the regulation of work PACE.
“During the Committee meeting, the vast majority of participants – heads of national delegations and heads of political groups expressed support for the efforts of the leadership of the Assembly for the restoration of dialogue among all 47 countries, including Russia. Traditionally this was opposed by the representatives of Ukraine, the Baltic States, as well as representatives from the UK,” – said Tolstoy, quoted by his press service.
Thus, according to him, the head of the British delegation Roger Gale at the meeting made a proposal to remove the representatives of Russia from the discussion in connection with the poisoning in England, the former GRU Colonel Sergei Skripal, who was sentenced in Russia for espionage in favour of great Britain.
“We, on the other hand, said that the conversation with Russia with the help of ultimatums is unacceptable and never led and will not lead to any result and the PACE is a platform of dialogue and cooperation, which would be nice to learn from the current British authorities, voicing unprecedented and unproven accusations against Russia in connection with the poisoning in Salisbury”, – said the Russian parliamentarian, adding that Gale’s position was not supported by other members of the Committee and heads of delegations. “On the contrary: the representatives of several countries – Switzerland, Armenia, Germany and the Netherlands – called for a dialogue with Russia on the site of PACE,” he added.
According to the Vice-speaker, the discussions will be summarized in the form of specific proposals and reports, which will be discussed at the end of April in Strasbourg at the next meeting of the ad hoc Committee. “It was important for us that the proposals that we presented were taken into account and will continue to be discussed by the Committee,” concluded Thick.
The ad hoc Committee of the PACE Bureau was established December 15. Its main objective is to harmonize activities of statutory bodies of the Council of Europe – Committee of Ministers (cm) and PACE. In a basis of work of the special Commission on the report of the current head of the PACE Michele Nicoletti, who is 11 October 2017 was also adopted a separate resolution of the Assembly. It said, in particular, about inconsistency in the composition of the Committee of Ministers and PACE, as Russia in the Assembly is not involved.
