The re-election of the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) was of a merely formal nature.

Member of the Armenian delegation to PACE, Samvel Farmanyan, who is also the deputy of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), told the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am on Monday.

In his words, the PACE President is changed once in two years and according to a rotation principle.

“This position is held by one of the political forces represented in PACE. During the last rotation, the parliamentary faction of European People’s Party (EPP) won the office. A year ago EPP nominated Pedro Agramunt. According to the tradition existing in PACE, changes are made for two years,” Farmanyan noted.

The EPP thus “updated” its candidacy, again nominating Agramunt, the deputy added.

“There is neither a political mechanism nor a precedent for preventing a man from holding the office which he has been running for already a year. Of course, we raised all the issues on Agramunt’s involvement in the corruption scandal and continue doing this. But this is not the mechanism which can hinder the re-election of the already acting PACE President,” Farmanyan added.

Pedro Agramunt was automatically re-elected at the opening of the winter session of PACE on Monday.

The prosecutor’s office of Milan has launched a case against the former Vice President of PACE Luca Volontè, who is also the former head of the EPP faction in PACE. The names of Pedro Agramunt and different deputies are also involved in this scandalous case connected with receiving a 3 million euro bribe from Azerbaijan for serving the interests of Baku.