On Sunday, the Bundestag called on the German government to increase its contribution to the Council of Europe’s budget to compensate for the possible loss of Russian contributions. The move was immediately welcomed by Tiny Kox, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, who urged the parliaments of the other 45 member states “to join this initiative” and “press” their respective governments to this effect.
The initial request was made by German socialist Frank Schwabe and Frenchman Jacques Maire (ALDE), both members of the parliamentary assembly.
On Twitter, Jacques Maire thanked the Bundestag and announced the support of French President Emmanuel Macron, his Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and his Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune.
Based on exchanges with “many fellow parliamentarians from various member states”, Tiny Kox said he was “convinced there will be overwhelming support for this” and highlighted that, despite Russia’s suspension by the Committee of Ministers on Friday, it “remains bound to respect its financial commitments to the Council of Europe”.
As a reminder: after the sanctions adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly against its Russian delegation in 2014, the Russian Federation interrupted its payments in 2017 and only resumed them in 2019 in view of the return of its representatives to the Strasbourg hemicycle.
Russia belongs to the club of “major contributors” to the Council of Europe budget.
In 2021, its contribution amounted to 33,948,208 euros out of a total budget of 520 million euros (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)