House of Representatives hoping to restore special guest status in PACE

Members of the House of Representatives hope to restore special guest status in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the chairman of the parliamentary committee for international affairs Vital Busko told reporters on January 27.

He noted that recently there were held elections of the new chairman of PACE, and hte post was taken by the representative of Spain. In his speech, he particularly touched on the relationship with Belarus and spoke about the return of the status to our country.

The MP also said that today in Strasbourg there is the head of delegation of the National Assembly responsible for the contacts with the PACE Mikalai Samaseika. Within the framework of the winter session of the Assembly, he will attend a meeting of the Political Affairs and Democracy Committee to be held on January 28. It is also planned to hold meetings with the head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of the Secretariat of the PACE, BelaPAN reports.

Belarus received special guest status on September 16, 1992, and on January 13, 1997 it was deprived of it: Bureau of the Assembly did not recognize the constitutional referendum of 24 November 1996.

In June 2009, PACE adopted a resolution which said that the special guest status of the Belarusian parliament will be returned only after the introduction of a moratorium on the death penalty.