Seven countries stop their participation in Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe following return of Russia legislators

Delegations of Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe decided to cut short their participation in the summer session following the return to the PACE of Russian legislators.

“The unconditional restoration of the Russian Delegation’s rights without the Russian Federation honoring any of the Assembly’s numerous demands runs counter to the core values of the Council of Europe and its Statute,” reads a joint statement released by the group of delegations.

“The future of the CoE is under threat as a whole because the CoE is losing the trust of the people it stands to protect,” the statement stresses. The delegates said they are returning home “to consult our Parliaments and Governments about the joint actions in the Assembly in the next sessions,” adding that they “wish good luck to the newly elected Secretary General and hope she/he finds a way to solve this unprecedented crisis of trust which was created this week.”

Via UNIAN