Strasbourg – ESI at meetings on the Council of Europe’s decision to suspend the Azerbaijani delegation from PACE
ESI’s Gerald Knaus met with MPs from different party groups to discuss the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s (PACE) decision to suspend the participation of Azerbaijani parliamentarians in the Assembly. They also discussed how to push forward for Kosovo’s membership.
Member states that imprison internal critics and systematically torture opponents must change or face the consequences. The suspension shows that the Council of Europe takes its standards seriously.
In the Parliamentary Assembly, Frank Schwabe, a German Social Democrat, stood up to present a motion to "challenge the still unratified credentials of the delegation of Azerbaijan on substantive grounds". He was urging his colleagues to suspend the participation of Azerbaijani parliamentarians in the Assembly on account of a "serious violation of the basic principles of the Council of Europe."
- ESI Publication: When Aliyev’s MPs were shown the door - A historic PACE debate, 24 January 2024
- ESI proposals website: Caviar Diplomacy
- ESI Newsletter: The strangest love affair – autocrats and parliamentarians, from Berlin to Strasbourg
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