Arpine Hovhannisyan says Pedro Agramunt’s impeachment to take center-stage at PACE Summer session
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) Summer plenary session will be held in Strasbourg from 26 to 30 June 2017, where the impeachment process of the Assembly President Pedro Agramunt is expected to be discussed, the Head of the Armenian delegation to the PACE, Vice Speaker of the National Assembly Arpine Hovhannisyan told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday.
“The session agenda, obviously, includes the matter [impeachment], which is a priority and to which the President himself vehemently opposes through all available means, up to questioning the decision
by the Rules of Procedure Committee,” Hovhannisyan said.
The vice speaker of the parliament reminded that the Committee earlier adopted a decision to establish mechanisms enabling the Assembly to ensure compliance with the duty of accountability of its members holding elective offices, including the President, - such as an impeachment procedure or vote-of-no-confidence.
“The proposed amendments into the Assembly's Rules of Procedure are expected to be approved at the plenary session. After that the process [of the impeachment] will be launched,” added Hovhannisyan.
To remind, during the previous Spring session the Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly passed a motion of no confidence in incumbent PACE President, Pedro Agramunt, and proceeded to work on the impeachment process,
PACE president appeared before a hearing after some members demanded a vote of no confidence following his unauthorized trip to Syria and meeting with President Bashar Assad.