European refusal

Member of the Federation Council Mikhail Margelov will not be elected chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, as previously expected. According to Vedeomsty, the principles of the election of the head of Pase were changed last Thursday at a meeting of the leaders of the five deputy groups of the Assembly.

In accordance with the agreement reached in the early 1990s, the chairman of PACE is actually appointed by one of the five groups included in the Assembly. The alternation of groups occurs on the basis of the principle of rotation every three years. At the current session, PACE was supposed to choose the head of the Assembly, the group "European Democrats", which intended to offer its leader - Margelov.

However, at the January meeting, it was decided to transfer the right to nominate their representative to the socialists. The two largest groups of PACE were put their signatures under the new document: socialists and the European People’s Party, as well as a small association "United European Left". Democrats and liberal democrats abstained, the head of the Socialist Secretariat Marlene Albanes told the newspaper.

There is no final decision yet, said Leonid Slutsky, deputy chairman of the International State Duma Committee.

According to the publication, the candidacy of Margelov caused fierce disputes in PACA. The delegation of Sweden and many Estonian politicians spoke out against him. As an argument, the December elections to the Russian State Duma were brought against, whose democracy European politicians doubt.

The new document does not infringe on the rights of the Russian delegation, says the deputy of the Estonian parliament Marco Mikhkelson. The quantitative composition of the deputy groups has changed compared to the beginning of the 1990s, but now the elections will be held once every two years, and the Margelov group will receive the right to again nominate it in 2010.