COUNCIL OF EUROPE: RANCOR IN THE RANKS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 STRASBOURG 000009

SIPDIS

MADRID FOR POL
STATE ALSO FOR EUR/ERA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 5/4/2019
TAGS: PREL PHUM COE FR GG RU
SUBJECT: COUNCIL OF EUROPE: RANCOR IN THE RANKS

STRASBOURG 00000009 001.2 OF 002
CLASSIFIED BY: Vincent Carver, CG, Strasbourg, State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)


1. C) SUMMARY: The Council of Europe´s (COE) election for its
next secretary general has produced internecine warfare between
resident ambassadors and the Parliamentary Assembly (PACE),with
the former having short-listed only Thorbjorn Jagland of Norway
and Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz of Poland for the PACE´s vote in
June; the PACE voted overwhelmingly for candidates Luc Van den
Brande of Belgium and Matyas Eorsi of Hungary (both PACE
members) to be including in the June vote. The PACE session
April 27-30 criticized Russia over non-cooperation regarding
human rights. The COE´s 60th anniversary ministerial in Madrid
will focus on the next secretary general´s election as well as
the attempted end-run around Russia regarding Protocol 14 and
the working of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). An
attempt by Swiss parliamentarian Dick Marty to revisit "secret
prisons" was unsuccessful. End summary.


2. C) The COE´s Council of Ministers´ deputies (resident
ambassadors) held a closed-door rancorous session April 22 to
select which names of the four candidates it would forward to
the PACE for election in June as the next secretary general.
According to long-serving COE Secretariat official Mireille
Paulus (please protect),the session was one of the most
contentious in years. After more than four hours of debate and
procedural maneuvering, the deputies voted to send the names of
Jagland (Norway) and Cimoszewicz (Poland) to the PACE for the
election in June. Both the Belgian and Hungarian ambassadors
expressed their frustration to us privately, with the Belgian
noting that Belgian candidate Van den Brande likely would
continue to lobby for inclusion in the "short list" although he
(the ambassador) believed the battle over. Several ambassadors
told us that while they recognized both Van den Brande´s and
Eorsi´s contributions to the COE as PACE members, they also
wanted to respect the Junker Report which recommended that
persons of standing, particularly former prime ministers and
foreign ministers, should serve as COE Secretary General.
Paulus told us that while neither Jagland nor Cimoszewicz had
the profile the COE would prefer, they were still more visible
in European affairs that the other two candidates and
technically met the Junker criteria.


3. C) Several PACE members told us throughout the PACE session
April 27-30 that they viewed the deputies´ decision as a
"power-grab," with resident ambassadors wanting to ensure that
one of "their" insider candidates, rather than a democratically
elected representative (and therefore "less controllable") of
the PACE, become the next secretary general. In fact, the PACE
voted overwhelmingly (158 - 1 - 11) for the Council of Ministers
to reconsider and include all four candidates for the June
election. Paulus told us that Spanish FM Moratinos, as Chair of
the Council of Ministers, had agreed before the PACE vote with
the leaders of the PACE´s political groups to do so. Paulus
stressed to us that Moratinos had agreed to be accompanied at
those meetings by Van den Brande and Eorsi, a decision that
Paulus characterized as "non-statesmanlike." The deputies will
review the bidding May 6 but ministers themselves likely will
have to decide at the Madrid Ministerial May 12 whether to
respect their ambassador´s decision or to bow to pressure from
Moratinos and the PACE and include all four names for the
election by PACE in June.


4. C) On substance, the PACE session focused on Georgia-Russia,
with more parliamentarians noting that while Georgia has
fulfilled "most" of its COE obligations in the aftermath of the
war, Russia has not. The PACE Secretary General had told us
that most PACE members had decided that the situation regarding
Georgia-Russia had not changed significantly since the last PACE
session in January and therefore the PACE would not take any
significant decision on the matter. The PACE did pass a
resolution on the humanitarian consequences of the war (vote:
133 - 0 - 13). The Georgian Ambassador told us that he is
preparing a call to question the Russian delegation´s
credentials - likely in the September session, given that one
year will have passed at that point since the PACE first debated
the consequences of the war. The Georgian ambassador told us
that he expects more PACE members to be sympathetic to
suspending the Russians at that point in time. (Comment: While
more deputies may indeed agree, we doubt whether such a move
would pass; almost all COE bodies strongly favor continued
engagement over sanctions regarding almost every country on any
issue. End comment.)


5. U) The PACE also reviewed the situation of human rights
defenders in COE member states, with several members noting the
difficulties of defenders in Russia, while one Russian
questioned the intentions of some individuals who claim they are
human rights defenders. The PACE noted that Serbia had
steadily made progress on its COE commitments but that Belgrade
still had to take further concrete measures to ensure that all
its commitments are fully met. On Moldova, the PACE noted
deficiencies in the recent elections and called for a political
dialogue among all major political groups there.


6. U) Spanish PM Zapatero, Finnish President Halonen, and
Spanish FM Moratinos delivered speeches and answered
parliamentarians´ questions at the PACE. Zapatero stressed his
campaign to promote women´s rights and to promote a global
moratorium on the use of the death penalty. Zapatero said all
countries must fight terrorism but that the international
community must also examine terrorism´s roots. Halonen took a
few veiled jabs at Russia, said isolation of Belarus had not
worked, and stressed the need for global cooperation and
private-public partnerships in light of the global financial
crisis. Moratinos stressed that the COE must pass Protocol 14
(held up for Russia´s refusal to ratify the protocol, which
would streamline ECHR proceedings, thereby allowing more cases -
including the thousands backlogged from Russia - to be processed
more quickly),and that the world must eradicate terrorism - a
phenomenon that poses great security and human rights challenges.


7. C) The PACE passed a resolution supporting "Protocol 14bis,"
a maneuver that will likely be approved (two-thirds needed) by
ministers in Madrid that will serve most of the purposes of the
stalled Protocol 14. The resolution, debated on the eve of the
May Day long weekend, passed 39-0-0, with the Russian delegation
boycotting the session. Most of our contacts have told us that
they expect Lavrov to lobby heavily in Madrid for ministers not
to take action on Protocol 14bis, but that most other countries,
fed up with Russian intransigence on the issue, will adopt the
measure anyway.


8. C) Only a dozen or so parliamentarians signed on to Swiss
parliamentarian Dick Marty´s attempt to re-examine "secret
prisons" in Europe. The Romanian Ambassador had alerted us in
March to Marty´s efforts; the Romanian also told us few member
states wanted to re-open debate on this question.
CARVER