Sergey Kislyak: PACE Parliamentarian Should Co-Operate to Fight Pandemic

First Deputy Chair of the Committee of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on International Affairs Sergey Kislyak and First Deputy Chair of the Committee of the Federation Council of the Federa Assembly of the Russian Federation on Defense and Security Vladimir Kozhin participated in the meeting of the PACE Commission on Political Affairs and Democracy via video-conferencing.

The discussion was focused on the democracies facing COVID-19 pandemic. The participants exchanged their views on the role of national parliaments and holding elections during emergency situations. President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Hendrik Daems, as well as the invited experts from the leading European universities and representatives of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), participated in the discussion.

The participants discussed the need to enhance parliamentary cooperation, mandatory continue of work of the legislative bodies and promotion of parliamentary initiatives, as well as the issues of new kinds and formats of cooperation, features of remote and electronic voting, the performance of the monitoring teams in the new conditions and the balance between the freedoms of citizens and forced restrictive measures to ensure their security.

Based on the results of the discussion, the meeting decided to draft a relevant resolution.

Photo: http://council.gov.ru