Brussels, 13/07/2000 (Agence Europe) - During a press conference organised at the European Parliament by the Italian Radicals, Emma Bonino pointed out that the Transnational Radical Party (TRP) is to launch a campaign in order to keep the category I consultative status as NGO, recognised in 1995 by the Economic and Social Committee (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. At the request of the Federation of Russia, the ECOSOC NGO Committee decided end June to adopt a three-year sanction measure against the TRP. The Russian authorities reproach it for having benefited from funds from the international drugs trade and above all for having given the floor to a terrorist organisation. In April, during the session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the TRP invited and heard Akhiad Idigov, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chechen Parliament (an institution created by the Russian Federation following a Russia-Chechnya peace agreement in 1997). Ms Bonino explained that the TRP addressed a memo to the Committee in response to Russian accusations and that the representatives of France, Germany and the United States considered the three-year suspension too heavy. Given Russian pressure to obtain ratification of the sanction by the ECOSOC plenary assembly, on 27 July this year, the TRP decided to bring the matter out into the public domain.