Laima Andrikienė: Finally, Russia is expelled for the Council of Europe
Press release, 17 March 2022
Russia must immediately be expelled from the Council of Europe. The decision was taken by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) at its extraordinary plenary session on 14–15 March 2022 in Strasbourg.
‘All four members of the Seimas Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe voted in favour of this decision. The flag of the Russian Federation no longer flies outside the Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg as of 16 March 2022. Russia’s 26-year-long membership of this European organisation has ended,’ said Laima Andrikienė, Chair of the Seimas Committee on Foreign Affairs, who participated in the historic PACE session.
When speaking at the PACE plenary session, Ms Andrikienė, who is also Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, demanded that Russia leave the Council of Europe without delay. ‘A Member State which has most brutally violated the Charter of the United Nations and the founding principles of the Council of Europe enshrined in its Statute must immediately leave the organisation. There is no place for the aggressor in the Council of Europe whose activities are based on commitment to democracy and peace and respect for human rights and the rule of law. We strongly condemn the military aggression by Russia and by its puppet Belarus against Ukraine, as well as the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by Russia against the sovereign country of Ukraine and its people,’ noted the representative of Lithuania.
Ms Andrikienė expressed her own and Lithuania’s solidarity with Ukraine and its people. She informed members of the Assembly that the Seimas Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted a statement of 4 March 2022 addressing the parliaments of all democratic states and calling on them to push for the opening of humanitarian corridors on Ukraine’s territory through the United Nations mechanism to allow civilians’ safe passage out of the zones of military actions and the territories unlawfully occupied and controlled by the Russian Federation.
‘We call for no-fly zones over the humanitarian corridors and over Ukrainian nuclear power plants and nuclear waste storage facilities. It is possible to do this,’ said Ms Andrikienė.
Ms Andrikienė also called on members of the Assembly to urge ‘our parliaments to urgently address António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, to remove the Russian Federation as a Permanent Member from the UN Security Council, the main body of the United Nations responsible for maintaining international peace and security. The Russian Federation’s membership of the United Nations should be suspended. I also urge colleagues to seek the full withdrawal of troops of the Russian Federation from the sovereign territories of Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and Belarus.’
When addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from its rostrum, Ms Andrikienė invited Member States of the Council of Europe and other democratic countries to provide support for Ukraine and to seek that the widest possible number of countries across the world join sanctions against the Russian and Belarusian regimes.
Following the unanimous vote of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 15 March 2022 in favour of Russia’s expulsion from the Council of Europe, the same decision was adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 16 March 2022.
Aldona Drėgvaitė, email: [email protected]
Monika Kutkaitytė