06/10/2017 (Agence Europe) – Spanish national Pedro Agramunt resigned from his job as President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Friday 6 October – a post he had held since January 2016. Agramunt anticipated his dismissal, which was due to be debated and voted on at the opening of the PACE plenary on Monday 9 October. Under strong challenge from the members of PACE (including within the European People's Party), he had been the subject of a common position of no-confidence from all the political groups, which was published on 26 April. This position was taken following Agramunt's meeting with Syrian President Bashar al Assad in March, without PACE being informed. The election of the new PACE president is planned in January 2018. An inter-group agreement provides for a socialist to fill this post at this time, and Italian national Michele Nicoletti has been appointed by his group for this. (VL)