The Parliamentary Assembly is one of the Council of Europe’s two main statutory bodies and represents the main political tendencies in its member states. The Assembly sees itself as the driving force in extending European co-operation to all democratic states throughout Europe.
Europe’s democratic conscience The Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly was the first European assembly to be created in the continent’s history. It is also the most comprehensive, with delegations from 46 national parliaments.
It is free to choose its own agenda and deals with topics of current or potential importance, including current social problems and aspects of international politics.
Its deliberations provide significant guidelines for the Council’s Committee of Ministers and intergovernmental sectors, and they influence governments when members relay them to their national parliaments.
The historic events in central and eastern European nations at the beginning of the 1990s set the Assembly the unique challenge of bringing them into the fold of European democracies and encouraging parliamentary co-operation between all European nations. In this way it has contributed to building a greater Europe without dividing lines.
The Parliamentary Assembly created its special guest status in 1989. This allowed parliamentary delegations from the emerging pluralist democracies of central and eastern Europe, as yet non-members, to attend the Assembly’s plenary sessions and committee meetings. These contacts and exchanges encouraged democratisation in these countries and facilitated their accession to the Council of Europe.
Structure and organisation: mirroring the European democracies The Parliamentary Assembly’s 315 members and their substitutes are elected or appointed by national parliaments from among their own members. Each country has between 2 and 18 representatives, depending on its population. National delegations are constituted to ensure a fair representation of their parliamentary political parties or groups.
The Assembly has five political groups: the Socialists Group (SOC), the Group of the European People’s Party (EPP/CD), the Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group (LDR), the European Democratic Group (EDG) and the Group of the Unified European Left (UEL). Some members choose not to belong to any political group.
The Assembly meets quarterly for a week in plenary session in the Chamber of the Palais de l’Europe in Strasbourg. Sittings are public. It also holds a spring meeting in one of the member states.
It elects its president from among its members, traditionally for three consecutive one-year terms. The President, Vice-Presidents (19 at present), the Chairs of the five political groups and the Chairs of the ten committees form the Bureau of the Assembly.
It also elects the Council of Europe’s Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General, the Secretary General of the Assembly, the judges of the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.
Its work is prepared by specialist committees dealing with: political affairs, legal affairs and human rights, social, health and family affairs, culture, science and education, the environment and agriculture, local and regional affairs, economic affairs and development, migration, refugees and population; equal opportunities for women and men,rules of procedure and immunities, and the honouring of obligations and commitments by member states.
