Strasbourg – ESI at meetings on the Council of Europe’s decision to suspend the Azerbaijani delegation from PACE

23 January 2024
Council of Europe
Council of Europe. Photo: ESI

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."