PACE voted for Andriy Shevchenko to represent his party at the Parliamentary Assembly.
Objections regarding Shevchenko’s powers were linked to the fact that ex-MP Serhiy Vlasenko lost his powers based on the Supreme Administrative Court’s decision that can be considered a politically motivated one.
However, the Committee on the Rules of Procedure decided that there are no grounds to strip Andriy Shevchenko of his powers at a meeting on Wednesday.
“We have no opportunity to research procedure practices in Ukraine today,” said Natasha Vuckovic, Serbian member of the Socialist Group, as she presented the Committee’s position at the session room.
Ivan Popesku, Head of the Ukrainian delegation, his Deputy Serhiy Sobolev, and opposition MPs Lesia Orobets and Volodymyr Ariev took part in the discussion.
Popesku noted that there are no formal arguments to object Shevchenko’s powers since Arseniy Yatseniuk, “the Head of the Batkivshchyna faction recommended Andriy Shevchenko as replacement for Serhiy Vlasenko, VR Speaker Volodymyr Rybak approved the request and it was submitted to PACE President.”
Meanwhile, opposition MPs insisted that, although Andriy Shevchenko’s powers are recognized as legitimate, PACE’s decision should also state that Serhiy Vlasenko was stripped of his mandate unjustly. PACE MPs did not support this.
“The Committee on the Rules of Procedure ruled that formal grounds to object Andriy Shevchenko’s powers under Art. 7.1 of PACE procedure do not cover his case. His powers comply with Art. 6 of the document,” PACE decision says.
PACE’s legal division clarified that one opportunity to not approve Shevchenko as member of the Ukrainian delegation was for him to personally and publicly reject the right to work at PACE in order to support his party fellow. Andriy Shevchenko did not express this initiative.
At the beginning of this week, PACE questioned the powers of Andriy Shevchenko, a new member of Ukraine’s delegation replacing Serhiy Vlasenko in it.
