Agramunt Age Passes

Baku / 26.04 / 17 / Turan: The scandal that broke out in PACE after the visit of the President of the Assembly Pedro Agramunt, together with the State Duma deputies to Syria, and his meeting with Bashar Assad, is drawing to a logical conclusion.

Under the threat of voting at the PACE session on a vote of confidence, Agramunt agreed to voluntarily resign.

As Turan learned from sources in the PACE, Agramunt, during informal consultations with the faction leaders, asked them to give him the opportunity to hold one meeting of the Assembly on April 27, where the Spanish King Philip VI will speak.

At the same time, at all other meetings including the closure of the session, Agramunt will not participate.

Then, at a meeting of the Bureau on Friday after the closing session, he will announce his resignation.

The resignation itself will be formalized at the next Bureau meeting in Prague on May 29, an informed source in Strasbourg informed.

The resignation of Agramunt, following the exposure by the Italian prosecutor's office of the former Vice-President Luca Volonte accused of corruption has become a landmark event.

It seems that PACE finds the strength to clear itself of corruption and unhealthy lobbyism, launched in the organization in recent years.

This was facilitated by the suspension of the powers of the Russian delegation in connection with the occupation of the Crimea. It was the Russian delegation that played an important role in creating a system of mutual guarantee, when deputies from the countries of the former Soviet Union and the former socialist camp supported each other in opposing democratic initiatives. At the same time, they played along with a number of unscrupulous deputies from Western countries.

Let's add that Agramunt was a great friend of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE. It was he, being the co-rapporteur of the monitoring committee, who actively contributed to the failure of the Christoph Strasser report on political prisoners in Azerbaijan in 2013.

At the same time, in the issue of the Karabakh conflict, despite statements in support of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, when it came to real action, Agramunt shied away from expressing his position. So, in the summer of 2015, Agramunt left the room when a meeting was held on voting on a resolution on Nagorno-Karabakh, confirming the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. -06D--