The FINANCIAL — Adopting the report prepared by Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC), the Committee on Rules of Procedure of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) stated its belief that “the representation of the Turkish parliament in the Assembly is clearly too low” and that it is “entirely justified and fair” to grant the request made by the Turkish parliamentary delegation to increase the number of seats allocated to it.
In the Committee’s view, the Turkish delegation should join the delegations which currently have eighteen seats in the Assembly (France, Germany, Italy, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom).
The text adopted notes that Turkey has seen the highest population growth in Europe and now has Europe’s third-largest population. Yet the allocation of seats in the Assembly has not been adjusted since 1977. The allocation of seats in the Assembly between member states as set out in Article 26 of the Statute of the Council of Europe is based solely on the criterion of population size, according to PACE.
The Committee also supported the Turkish delegation’s request to introduce Turkish as a working language in the Assembly, subject to the allocation of an additional appropriation of €0.7 million a year in the ordinary budget of the Council of Europe.
The Committee noted the “clear stance” taken by the Assembly in Resolution 2046 (2015) and Opinion 288 (2015), in which it welcomes the Turkish government’s decision to support the strengthening of the Council of Europe’s capacities and resources by offering to become a major contributor to the Organisation’s budgets from 1 January 2016.
Discussion about this post