YEREVAN. – Pedro Agramunt chose the option of humiliating himself to the end, not attending the Bureau meeting today, and not presenting a letter of resignation, Armenia's delegate to PACE Samvel Farmanyan noted on his Facebook page on Friday.

According to him, the Bureau of PACE had to make a humiliating and unprecedented decision to impose a de facto impeachment.

Farmanyan released the Bureau's decision and added:

“PS 1.  The Bureau's decision was supported by 27 MPs, three members from Spain and Azerbaijan abstained.

PS 2. As a legal solution to the embarrassing situation,  PACE Rules of Procedure will be changed on the first day of the  June session and  a special provision will be set for  de jure removing  Pedro Agramunt as PACE president, if, of course, he stubbornly  continues refusing to resign. Meanwhile, an extraordinary session of the PACE EPP faction will be held in May to discuss this embarrassing and unprecedented situation. And the EPP will convene a special meeting in Brussels to discuss Pedro Agramunt's shameful behavior,” Farmanyan noted.

It was noted earlier that the Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) had no confidence in Pedro Agramunt as President of the Assembly. In addition Agramunt was not authorized to undertake any official visits, attend any meetings or make any public statements on behalf of the Assembly in his capacity as President.

“The President chose not to attend the Bureau today, and has not presented a letter of resignation. As a result, and in the context of the current Rules of Procedure under which the President cannot be compelled to resign, the Bureau felt it necessary to take these steps,” said Sir Roger Gale (United Kingdom, EC), Senior Vice-President of the Assembly, after chairing the Bureau meeting.

“The standards and principles of the Parliamentary Assembly are more important than any individual member, and the integrity of our Assembly must be upheld,” he added.