On Monday 12 March, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, warned against Russia leaving the Council of Europe at a time when the country is currently suspended from voting in the Assembly due to its illegal annexation of Crimea and no longer pays its contribution to the budget (10% of the total).
"This poses a problem for the smooth operation (of the institution). The Russians no longer have the right to vote and this has repercussions on the legitimacy of the Court, of the human rights commissioner and of the secretary general", Jagland said at a hearing before the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee. "We cannot continue having a member state that refuses to finance the Council of Europe. We need to try and find a solution to come out of the crisis, otherwise Russia risks leaving the European Convention on Human Rights. Then 145 million citizens will no longer have the right to appeal to the Court", he said, adding that Russia's departure would be "a real disaster". "Everything has a price and we cannot accept the illegal annexation of Crimea without doing anything, but it is not up to the Council of Europe to resolve this crisis", he concluded.
Jagland spoke about the situation in Turkey. Although some criticise the fact that Turkish complaints are handled directly at the level of the European Court due to the "non-independence and non-impartiality" of Turkey's judicial system, Jagland believes it is important "to apply the Convention", according to which all recourse at national level must be exhausted before going to the European Court. He also said that the Court should not interfere in domestic legal issues. The Council of Europe has helped in the establishment of a committee that is studying the cases of dismissal after the attempted coup. This committee has received over 100,000 complaints and deals with 600 to 1,000 cases per week. Jagland also said that "if the decisions of the Constitutional Court are not respected, all those who have presented their file can then immediately go to the European Court of Human Rights which will deal with their file". (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)