Following a hearing in Paris on Tuesday 15 May, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) rules of procedure commission decided to bring sanctions against four of its current members, taking the view that they had seriously infringed the present code of conduct (see EUROPE 12011).
The decision is against Pedro Agramunt, former PACE President forced to resign in October 2017 and expelled from the European People’s Party (EPP), Jordi Xucla (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats), both of Spain, Cezar Florin Preda (EPP) of Romania and Saman Seyidov of Azerbaijan.
The four parliamentarians, directly implicated in the report by the independent enquiry group on now irrefutable (see EUROPE 12007) allegations of corruption in favour of Azerbaijan, may remain as members of and speak in the PACE but they will no longer be able to act as election rapporteurs or observers, nor will they be eligible to stand for the chairmanship or deputy chairmanship of any commission or sub-commission.
Their right to address questions in the Committee of Ministers has also been suspended but they retain their right to vote in the body but will no longer be able seek election to its presidency.
The sanctions come into effect immediately. For Xucla, Preda and Seyidov, they will remain in place for two years. For Agramunt, they will last ten years.
Attending the rules of procedure commission hearing with his lawyers, Agramunt questioned the reliability of the evidence gathered by the independent enquiry group and accused the NGOs which triggered the affair of being manipulated by the foundation of American-Hungarian billionaire George Soros. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)