Ministers' Deputies
CM Documents
CM(2000)121 16 August 2000
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719 Meeting, 6 September 2000
2 Political questions

2.3 Armenia
Procedure for accession to Council of Europe membership
Document prepared by the Secretariat
(Directorate General of Political Affairs)

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Introduction

1.         At their 717^th meeting on 13 July 2000; the Ministers' Deputies took note of Opinion No. 221 (2000) adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly on 28 June 2000 on Armenia's application for membership of the Council of Europe, and agreed to consider, at their 719^th meeting (6 September 2000), the question of Armenia's membership of the Council of Europe, notably in the light of the commitments undertaken by Armenia as set out in Opinion No. 221 (2000), as well as of the study to be prepared by the Secretariat on the political and financial implications of such an accession.

2.         This document has been prepared according to the above instructions. A similar decision was taken concerning the application for membership by Azerbaijan (Assembly Opinion No. 222 and CM(2000)122). The Ministers' Deputies may also wish to refer to the report by their Chairman on the visit by Mr. U. Ranieri, Secretary of State of Italy, on behalf of the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers to Baku, Tbilisi and Yerevan on 14-15 June 2000 (CM/Inf (2000) 38), in particular concerning the question of a possible simultaneous accession of the two countries to the Council of Europe.

The Procedure

3.                  Under the terms of Article 4 of the Statute of the Council of Europe:

“Any European State which is deemed to be able and willing to fulfil the provisions of Article3 may be invited to become a Member of the Council of Europe by the Committee of Ministers. Any State so invited shall become a Member on the deposit on its behalf with the Secretary General of an instrument of accession to the present Statute”.

Prior consultation of the Parliamentary Assembly (giving an opinion on each application) is required by Statutory Resolution (51) 30 adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 3.5.1951.

4.                  Accordingly, the next stage in the procedure of accession by Armenia to the Council of Europe would consist in the adoption by the Committee of Ministers of a decision (in the form of a Resolution) inviting Armenia to become a Member. This decision requires a unanimous vote (i.e. the unanimous vote of the Deputies casting a vote, and a majority of Deputies entitled to vote) if taken by the Ministers' Deputies: see Rules of Procedures for the meetings of the Ministers' Deputies, Article 9.1(f) –or a two-thirds majority of all the representatives entitled to sit on the Committee, if taken at a ministerial session of the Committee of Ministers: see Article 20.c of the Statute.

5.                  This would be followed by the deposit with the Secretary General, on behalf of Armenia, of an instrument of accession to the Statute. This act which marks the very moment of becoming a Member of the Council of Europe, is normally performed at a ceremony on a date fixed by agreement between the Committee of Ministers and the Government concerned.

An appropriate lapse of time should be left between the adoption of the Resolution by the Committee of Ministers and that ceremony, so as to allow proper preparation by the country's authorities (which may require prior parliamentary deliberation).

The Resolution inviting Armenia to become a Member

6.                  In recent history, resolutions by the Committee of Ministers to invite a country to become a member of the Council of Europe contained a general reference to the commitments entered into by the Government in the context of accession. This reference has been worded as follows:

            “In the light of the commitments entered into and the assurances for their fulfilment given by the … Government in its contacts both with the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, with a view to membership of the Council of Europe…” [1] ^..

7.                  A similar general reference could be one of the alternatives to be retained in the resolution on Armenia, as follows:

            “In the light of the commitments entered into and the assurances for their fulfilment given by the Armenian Government in its contacts both with the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, with a view to membership of the Council of Europe…”.

8.         This reference would cover the whole of paragraphs 13 and 14 of Opinion No. 221 (2000) of the Parliamentary Assembly.

9.         Additional steps were taken in the case of Croatia, where the Committee of Ministers, after having received a first opinion by the Parliamentary Assembly with a list of commitments, entered itself into contacts with the Croatian Government in relation to clarifying the commitments.  The Committee of Ministers felt it necessary to spell out priority commitments and expectations considering that rapid and satisfactory information on their fulfilment by the Croatian authorities would greatly facilitate the examining of Croatia's request to be invited to become a member of the Council of Europe.

This was done by an exchange of letters between Mr. Siim Kallas, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, Minister for Foreign affairs of the Republic of Estonia (7 June 1996) and Dr. Mate Granić, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Croatia (13 June 1996).

The formula retained by the Committee of Ministers in Resolution (96) 31 on Croatia was as follows:

            “In the light of the exchange of correspondence between the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Croatia whereby Croatia accepted the priority commitments and expectations associated with the accession of Croatia to the Council of Europe…”.

10.       In the case of Georgia, without forming additional commitments but in order to clarify the expectations of the Committee of Ministers concerning the commitments listed in Opinion No. 209 (1999) of the Parliamentary Assembly, the Committee of Ministers asked the Chairman to send a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia containing clarifications as regards the expectations of the Committee of Ministers together with its readiness to assist the Georgian authorities in living up to these expectations, as well as a request for a reply before the meeting at which a decision on Georgia's accession was scheduled.

The formula retained in Resolution (99) 4 on Georgia was as follows:

            “In the light of the commitments entered into by Georgia, as set out in Opinion No. 209 (1999) by the Parliamentary Assembly and the assurances for their fulfilment given by the Georgian Government in the letter by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of 18 March 1999, in reply to the letter by the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe of 16 March 1999, with a view to membership of the Council of Europe..”

11.                   If the Ministers' Deputies were to opt for one or the other of the additional steps mentioned above, they might wish to refer to one or more of the main commitments spelt out in Opinion No. 221, for instance the settlement of the Nagarno-Karabakh conflict (para 13.ii) and questions relating to the protection of human rights (paras 13.i, iii and iv), which imply a thorough study – and implementation – of the compatibility of domestic law and practice with the European Convention of Human Rights and the Strasbourg case-law.

12.              The Appendix contains a draft Resolution inviting Armenia to become a Member of the Council of Europe, which the Secretariat prepared in line with the precedents mentioned under the first of the alternatives above. If the Ministers' Deputies wished to choose another way, they could instruct the Secretariat to prepare a draft letter by the Chairman to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, bearing in mind the other cases mentioned in this document.

14.       On the basis of past experience and accepted practice, relating to the Accession of new Member States, additional annual appropriations required to finance obligatory expenditure in the Ordinary Budget would be as follows:

Vote IV  European Court of Human Right
(Remuneration of Judge, Lawyer and Secretary)                                   €         269 000

Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe
 (Travel and Subsistence Expenses for attendance at meetings)               €          20 000

Intergovernmental Action
Attendance of Representatives at Plenary Meetings                                €          144 000

Assistance Programmes                                                                        €          500.000

for both countries to be allocated on the basis of detailed programmes to be negotiated with the authorities of the respective countries.

In the case of Azerbaijan and Armenia, there will be a specific requirement for additional resources in the Ordinary Budget to finance the special assistance programmes necessary to help them meet the commitments entered into upon Accession. An increase of € 500.000 bring the total available resources for cooperation with Armenia and Azerbaijan (excluding any possible additional resources from a possible EC/CoE Joint Programme to be negotiated) to nearly €1 million and would represent a doubling of the cooperation programmes these countries compared to the level of 2000 . Bearing in mind that the cooperation programmes have already gone through a very strict streamlining of geographical priorities for programmes in South Eastern Europe and CIS countries, it will not be possible to compensate the increase of programmes for the two new member states by internal redeployment. 

 The above figures should be considered as indicative.  When any accession is confirmed a detailed breakdown of the additional appropriations required in the Ordinary Budget will be provided to the Deputies.

APPENDIX

DRAFT RESOLUTION (2000) …

Invitation to Armenia
to become a member of the council of europe

(Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on …2000
at the … meeting of the Ministers' Deputies)

Considering the wish expressed by Armenia to become a member of the Council of Europe;

Having taken note of the intention of the Government of Armenia to sign the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms upon the deposit by the said government of its instrument of accession to the Statute of the Council of Europe;

Expecting that this instrument will be ratified as soon as possible;

Having, in accordance with the provisions of Statutory Resolution (51) 30 A, consulted the Parliamentary Assembly, which has expressed a favourable opinion (Opinion No.221);

Observing with satisfaction that Armenia complies with the conditions laid down in Article 4 of the Statute;

In the light of the commitments entered into and the assurances for their fulfilment given by the Armenian Government in its contacts both with the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, with a view to membership of the Council of Europe;

Having regard to Article 16 of the Financial Regulations,

Resolves:

i.          to invite Armenia to become a member of the Council of Europe and accede to the Statute;

ii.          to fix at four the number of Representatives of Armenia in the Parliamentary Assembly;

iii.         to determine Armenia's various proportionate financial contributions to the Council of Europe according to the appendix to this resolution of which it forms an integral part;

Instructs the Secretary General to notify the Government of Armenia of these decisions and to make all necessary arrangements for their implementation.

Appendix to Resolution (2000) …

1.         The Committee of Ministers, in accordance with Resolution (94) 31 on the method of calculating the scale of member states' contributions to Council of Europe budgets, fixes the proportion of the contribution of Armenia to the ordinary budget, extraordinary budget - expenditure resulting from the departure of the European parliament (Head 1.2), the Pensions and the European Youth Foundation budget at 0.12% for 2000.

2.         The Committee of Ministers, in accordance with Resolution (86) 30, fixes the proportion of Armenia's contribution to the extraordinary budget-expenditure relating to the Human Rights Building (Head 1.1) at 0.11% for 2000.

3.         The amount which Armenia is to contribute to the Working Capital Fund, calculated in accordance with the same percentage as for the ordinary budget, is € 3 476 which is added to the Fund's present total.