PACE may consider returning special guest status to Belarusian parliament in June 2009

The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) may consider returning special guest status to the National Assembly of Belarus at its session in June 2009, Goran Lindblad, chairperson of PACE’s Political Affairs Committee, told reporters in Minsk on Tuesday.

According to him, Andrea Rigoni, PACE's rapporteur on the situation in Belarus, plans to propose returning this status to the Belarusian parliament. Officially, this proposal has not yet been put forward, Mr. Lindblad noted. Mr. Rigoni will deliver his report on Belarus, which would contain this proposal, he added.

The report will initially be heard by the Political Affairs Committee and if it is approved, it would be submitted for consideration by the Parliamentary Assembly, Mr. Lindblad said.

He stressed that a necessary condition for the restoration of the Belarusian parliament’s special guest status in PACE would be the inclusion of representatives of the opposition in Belarus’ official delegation. Moreover, he said, it will be the Council of Europe that will decide on the composition of the delegation.

Belarus is the only European country still outside the Council of Europe. The national legislature’s special guest status in PACE was suspended in 1997 following a national referendum condemned by foreign observers as undemocratic. //BelaPAN
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