Statement
The Socialist Group at the Parliamentary Assembly at the Council of Europe :
« We call all members and former members of our group to fully cooperate with the independent external investigation body. »
On Monday, 26 June 2017 the Parliamentary Assembly at the Council of Europe (PACE) ratified the composition of the independent external investigation body as proposed by the Bureau. The members of the independent external investigation body will be Sir Nicolas Bratza (United Kingdom), Jean-Louis Bruguière (France) and Elisabeth Fura (Sweden). With the ratification, their mandate immediately entered into force. From now on these experts will be looking into the allegations of corruption and individual misconduct of delegates within the Assembly.
With the establishment of the idependent external investigation body the PACE took the first step to restore its reputation and its credibility which has been damaged by allegations of corruption and the misconduct of some of its members. In order to fully clarify all allegations, the body has to rely on the voluntary support of all members of PACE.
Therefore, we, Socialist Group, call upon all our members and also all our former members to fully cooperate with the independent external investigation body. We furthermore, urge the political groups, the national delegations as well as the each national government to foresee the necessary protection of all those people that are willing to share information with the investigation body.
