Ukraine loses seats in PACE Rules Committee

The Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has changed the rules for committees formation and excluded Ukraine from the Rules Committee dealing with Russia sanctions.

Ukraine has lost all seats in the PACE committees working on lifting sanctions on Russia and making it possible for Russia delegation to return to PACE, Censor.NET reports citing Yevropeiska Pravda.

Read more: EC President Juncker vows sanctions on Russia to stay in place until end of Donbas occupation, Ukraine envoy to PACE says

According to the decision of the PACE governing body, there can be no more than two representatives of each Member State in the Rules Committee and the Committee on the Election of Judges to the ECHR. Earlier, there were no such restrictions regarding the mentioned committees; their composition was based on the proposals from political groups.

It is worth noting that because of the new rules the seats in the committees were also lost by representatives of a number of other states. However, following the closed meeting of the Bureau, in which Volodymyr Ariev participated, he is convinced that the changes are directed against Ukraine because of its work in the Rules Committee. "This seems to be an act of small revenge for the principled position of Ukraine towards the change of rules in favor of the Russian Federation", he told Ukrainska Pravda.

On October 9, 2018, the members of the PACE voted for keeping the current limitations against the Russian delegation in the Assembly.

Read more: PACE recognizes Ukraine's Donbas being occupied by Russia

As reported earlier, 20 PACE member states signed the declaration against Russia’s return to the Assembly’s line-up.

Russian delegation to PACE left the Assembly's line-up after it faced numerous restrictions - due to the Kremlin's military aggression in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea in February 2014.