YEREVAN. - The chances are high that PACE President Pedro Agramunt will get a no-confidence vote during the January session of PACE, which will be held from January 23 to 27.

MP of the National Assembly of Armenia, Naira Zohrabyan, who is also a member of the Armenian delegation to PACE, told the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am.

In her words, the fact that the Prosecutor’s Office of Iran has launched a case against former PACE Vice President and honorary head of the European People's Party (EPP) faction in PACE, Luca Volontè, and that Pedro Agramunt’s name is also involved in the scandal, contributes to this.

“Volontè agreed to cooperate with the legal system and admitted that the acting President of PACE, Pedro Agramunt, was also involved in the entire corruption scandal. That is why during the October session Agramunt hysterically hindered Naira Karapetyan’s and my speeches, when we were speaking about that corruption scandal of Azerbaijan.

I think this cannot remain without consequences. I also think that the issue of the continuation of Agramunt’s office has to be raised during the January session, since the president of an Assembly which represents 47 countries cannot be a person, regarding whom the report of the famous German NGO entitled “caviar diplomacy” contains scandalous revelations,”Zohrabyan stressed.

According to her, Volontè has already mentioned the name of Agramunt in his testimonies, noting that the latter, as well as the heads of different groups of PACE and different deputies were involved in the scandalous story concerning the reception of 3 million euro bribe for serving the interests of Baku.    

“I assess the chances of giving a no-confidence vote to Agramunt as high, since the Iranian Prosecutor’s Office has sent all those materials—including the part where the name of Perdro Agramunt is touched on—also to the Spanish legal system. I think in order to clean this dirt from it, the Spanish delegation should be interested in removing the rubber stamp of Azerbaijan and junior worker of Aliyev’s administration, Pedro Agramunt, from this important post,” Zohrabyan noted.

Asked whether the Armenian delegation will come up with such an initiative or there will be other deputies as well, the MP noted: “The initiative will come from the delegates representing different European delegations, and the Armenian delegation will definitely join them, doing its best. There are steps which have been planned by our delegation but I am not authorized to voice them. If this question is not raised during this session, Agramunt will hold his office for another year.”

Referring to the issue regarding the possibility of Agramunt’s being elected in the election slated for the January session, Zohrabyan said: “The election of the PACE president is of a ceremonial nature, since according to internal agreement, the powers of the acting president are extended by one year by default: no special election is planned.  The election of the president is held according to the internal regulatory agreements, that is, a president is selected from each political group, who takes the office for two years. If nobody raises the issue of giving a no-confidence vote to Agramunt in connection with this corruption scandal, he will hold his office for another year.”

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