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During the opening of the winter plenary session of PACE on Monday, the organization’s re-elected President Liliane Maury Pasquier stressed the importance of all member states fulfilling their financial obligations before the organization. She also pointed out the need to continue political dialogue with Russia, adding that they need to have an honest and open discussion of existing problems, concentrating their efforts on searching for ways of regulation, and not on the differences between member countries.

"A situation where one member state - the Russian Federation - is not represented in the Assembly but participates in other bodies of the Organisation is ‘counterproductive”, Liliane Maury Pasquier said. The President stressed that "what is needed now is to find a way forward, bearing in mind these two important points”.

"The future of the Organisation is at stake and it is therefore our responsibility to find a solution," the President warned, as quoted by the PACE press reservice reports.

With regard to the Parliamentary Assembly, she stressed that it had an "institutional responsibility" to continue to be “a pan-European parliamentary platform that fulfils its statutory responsibilities as an organ of the Council of Europe”.