Dutch PACE Members Unaware of Resolution Suspending Russia's Voting Rights

© PACE official websiteIn April, PACE suspended Russia's voting rights over the country's reunification with Crimea.
In April, PACE suspended Russia's voting rights over the country's reunification with Crimea. - Sputnik International
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The Dutch delegates to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe cannot confirm the preparation of a draft resolution on barring Russia from voting at PACE.

PACE - Sputnik International
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MOSCOW, January 19 (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova — Members of the Dutch delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) are unaware of the reported preparation of a draft resolution suspending Russia’s voting rights until 2016.

“As a member of the Dutch delegation I am not aware of such a resolution,” Tiny Kox, a Dutch senator from the Socialist Party and the Netherland’s delegate to PACE told Sputnik news agency Monday. “Perhaps one of the members is working on it, surely not the delegation as such.”

Earlier on Monday, Russia’s Izvestia daily newspaper reported that the Netherlands had prepared a draft resolution on debarring Russia from voting at PACE for one more year.

“Certain chiefs of PACE and the Assembly’s committees are currently in Kiev, trying to figure out what to do with the Russian delegation in January. However, the Ukrainians oppose even partial restoration of Russia’s rights. As a PACE member, I don’t think our rights will be reinstated," Izvestia quoted Russia’s senior lawmaker Leonid Kalashnikov as saying.

In April, PACE suspended Russia's voting rights over its reunification with Crimea. To protest the expulsion, Russia’s delegation walked out of the assembly’s spring session. - Sputnik International
PACE May Suspend Russia's Voting Rights Until 2016
According to Kox, on Tuesday the Dutch delegation to PACE will be conducting its preparatory meeting for PACE winter session that will be held in Strasbourg on January 26-30.

Another member of the Dutch PACE delegation, Mark Verheijen, also said that he had no information about the alleged resolution.

“I don't know anything about a resolution from 'The Netherlands' on this topic,” Verheijen, who is a member of the Dutch House of Representatives from the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy told Sputnik.

Anne Brasseur, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. - Sputnik International
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He added that the Dutch delegation “is divided into separate political groups so we normally don't table resolutions as a Dutch delegation.”

According to Izvestia, it is unclear whether the Netherlands' draft law would deprive Russia of its voting rights completely or partially.

In April 2014, PACE suspended the voting rights of the Moscow delegation following Crimea’s reunification with Russia in March, 2014, a move condemned as illegal by the West and Ukraine. Voting rights in the organization are renewed annually at the winter session.

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