Media: Ukrainian delegation achieved resignation of PACE president
This week in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) the impossible happened. The Ukrainian delegation achieved the resignation of PACE President Pedro Agramunt, Evropeyskaya Pravda writes.
It seemed like there was no chance of this: PACE lacks methods for dismissing the president. There was a small chance of stopping his re-election in January, but the assembly did not want to go against tradition, and kept Agramunt as its leader for the second consecutive year.
On Monday morning, absolutely all of Evropeyskaya Pravda’s correspondents at the negotiations in the corridors of Strasbourg said that there was no chance of success. But they also added promptly that they would still do everything possible. In fact, they did even more.
PACE Chairman Pedro Agramunt will announce his resignation only after the King of Spain completes his visit to the assembly. He will make a statement of resignation on May 29, Evropeyskaya Pravda claims, citing sources.
In March, Agramunt visited Syria as part of the Russian delegation, where he met with President Bashar al-Assad. Members of PACE condemned the meeting and held special hearings, but Ukraine demanded Agramunt’s resignation.
According to the news outlet, Agramunt is willing to step down from his position on the condition that he is permitted to remain president until King Felipe VI of Spain speaks at the plenary hall.
The heads of the political group promised to agree to this condition, in exchange for a voluntary resignation.
“The resignation scheme will be as follows: Agramunt will not even appear in the session hall on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, except for one hour, when he will bring the king into the hall and listen to him from the assembly’s president’s chair,” the publication writes.
Afterwards he will lead the king back out, and after the end of the session, he will go to the Bureau meeting in order to officially announce his resignation. The resignation will thus not be formally documented for another month.
According to the article, Agramunt will bring a written statement about his resignation to the meeting of the presidential committee and the PACE bureau, which will take place on May 29 in Prague.
Vladimir Aryev, head of the Ukrainian delegation, confirmed that on Friday the president of PACE will make a statement regarding his status as a result of his scandalous visit to Syria with the Russian delegation.
“PACE President Agramunt announced that on Friday he will make a statement regarding his status as a result of the visit to Assad. Participants in the visit admitted that they were used by the Russians, who manipulated them, and acknowledged that this visit did great damage to PACE,” Aryev stated.
Later the Ukrainian MP also specified that, “Agramunt admitted that the Russians deceived them, and the Russian media manipulated them as it pleased”.