Council of Europe

Parliamentary Assembly
The President
Strasbourg, 26 March 2018

Dear Mr Omtzigt,

Thank you for your letter of 22 March 2018 in which you raise your concerns regarding the procedure of
dealing with the report of the independent external investigation body on allegations of corruption within the
Assembly.

I fully agree with you that the Assembly should consider the report of the investigation body with the utmost
care and seriousness. As you have rightly mentioned in your letter – “the investigation concerns the
Assembly as a whole”.

When dealing with the report, it is my intention to proceed strictly along the lines defined in the “Terms of
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reference of the independent external investigation body” ratified by the Assembly on 25 April 2017 and in
particular with paragraph 12 to which you refer in your letter and which reads as follows:

“12. The investigation body shall report back to the Bureau of the Assembly, presenting a final report. This
report shall be made public. The investigation body may decide that parts of this report shall remain
confidential.”

In line with the provisions included in paragraph 12, the report will first be submitted to the Bureau of the
Assembly and only after that will become public and available to everyone.

The report is expected to be delivered by the investigation body by 15 April 2018.

A special Bureau meeting has been convened on 22 April 2018 in order to proceed with an exchange of
views with the members of the investigation body on the content of the report. At its last meeting on
15 March 2018 in Paris, the Bureau of the Assembly discussed in depth the procedure of dealing with the
coming report of the investigation body and took several decisions in this respect which you will find below:

-:-:-:-

…/…
Mr Pieter OMTZIGT
Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe for The Netherlands
Member of Parliament for the Dutch Christian Democratic Party (CDU)

Email: p.omtzigt@tweedekamer.nl

Tel.: +33 (0)3 88 41 20 94

Postal Address : Fax: +33 (0)3 88 41 27 96
F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex Michele.Nicoletti@coe.int
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Extract of the Synopsis of the Bureau of the 15 March:

- Preparation of the Bureau meeting on 22 April 2018 (3 pm to 6.30 pm): took note of the
information provided by the Secretary General of the Assembly on the preparation of the meeting
(exchange of views with members of the Independent external investigation body on the allegations of
corruption within the Assembly) and decided:

i. to organise the meeting on 22 April 2018 in two parts:

- “in camera” exchange of views with members of the investigation body, followed by
- discussion on possible reaction of the Bureau to the report of the investigation body (not “in
camera”);

ii. to authorise the Secretary General of the Assembly to:

- transmit the report of the investigation body, upon its receipt, exclusively to the President of the
Assembly;
- make the report available to Bureau members as from 2 pm on 22 April 2018 by providing
members with a paper copy to be read exclusively inside the meeting room;
- release the report, excluding any confidential parts, to the public at the end of the Bureau meeting
on 22 April 2018;
- transmit the report, after the Bureau meeting on 22 April 2018, to all Speakers of national
Parliaments of Council of Europe member States;

iii. as a preliminary measure:

- to invite the members of the Assembly whose behaviour has been found by the investigation body
as unethical or in violation of the Assembly’s code of conduct, or who have refused to co-operate
with the investigation body, to suspend all their activities within the Assembly with immediate effect;
- to invite the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs to consider
further possible actions;

-:-:-:-

In your letter you ask 9 specific questions. Please find below my replies to your questions.

1. What is the exact schedule of the Bureau? When will the members receive the report; will they hold a
Q&A with the investigation body and will they meet in camera? If so can you indicate the dates and
venues?

The Bureau will meet on 22 April 2018 from 3 pm to 6.30 pm in order to discuss the content of the report of
the investigation body together with its members. Members of the Bureau will receive the report one hour
before the opening of the meeting. The meeting will take place in the Palais de l’Europe, room 7 and will be
held “in camera”, i.e with a reduced presence of the secretariat.

2. Are those meetings open to all members of the Assembly?

As you are aware, the Bureau meetings are open only to Bureau members.

3. What procedure has been agreed upon to avoid a conflict of interests for Bureau members whose
names or whose practices are mentioned in the report?

No special measures have been taken so far in this respect. However, the Bureau has already decided “to
invite the members of the Assembly whose behaviour has been found by the investigation body to be
unethical or in violation of the Assembly’s code of conduct, or who have refused to co-operate with the
investigation body, to suspend all their activities within the Assembly with immediate effect” (it being
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understood that this suspension would come to an end after the matter had been considered by the Rules
Committee). The Rules Committee will be invited to consider further actions, including possible sanctioning
of members concerned. This decision will also automatically apply, to any Bureau members concerned.

4. Has it been agreed that the whole report will be made public (except for the part which the investigation
body wants to keep confidential)?

This is obvious and was already decided when adopting the terms of reference of the investigation body. The
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report will be made public (via a link on the Assembly website) immediately after the Bureau meeting on 22
rd
April 2018. It will be available in paper form as from the morning of Monday 23 April 2018 in the documents’
distribution room on the first floor.

5. Will minutes and tape recordings be made of these meetings by the Bureau and will all votes taken in
the Bureau meeting be open and public with a written record of the vote?

Minutes are not produced for meetings held “in camera”. The second part of the Bureau meeting on Sunday
22 April, where votes might take place, will not be held “in camera”, therefore its minutes will be available in
due course (in principle, not before Friday 27 April), subject to the Bureau decision on declassifying them.

6. Can Members read the minutes of the Bureau meetings on Monday morning of the part session?

Please see my reply above.

7. Will members of the Assembly have access to all parts of the report to which the Bureau members have
access?

Yes, except the part which the investigation body itself might wish to classify as “confidential”.

8. Will the Bureau propose to have a public Q&A with the investigation body, which is at least as long as
the closed Q&A with the bureau?

At this stage, this has not been foreseen.

9. Will the Bureau propose a separate urgent debate on this report?

The Bureau has assumed that those who might speak in the Assembly about the report of the investigation
body will do so within the debate on the Progress Report of the Bureau. This is why additional time has been
rd
allocated to this debate scheduled for Monday 23 April 2018 (one hour in the morning sitting plus at least
one hour in the afternoon sitting). However, if members of the Assembly wish to hold a separate urgent
debate on the matter they may ask for it in line with Rule 51 of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure; the
Bureau itself cannot ask for such a debate.

I hope this clarifies matters for you. With your agreement I will share our exchange of letters with all Bureau
members.

Yours sincerely,

Michele Nicoletti