MP from Odesa elected president of PACE for the second time

Oleksiy Honcharenko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from the European Solidarity party, has been elected president of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the second time.

According to Honcharenko, this year no other representative of the Ukrainian delegation has headed PACE committees, so he will remain the only representative of Ukraine in the Bureau of the Assembly.

"Thank you for this honor and opportunity, I will continue to work!" the MP commented on his re-election.

In 2024, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for the first time elected Oleksiy Honcharenko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, as President of the Migration Committee.

In 2022, PACE appointed Honcharenko as Vice President of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons.

The Council of Europe is an international organization that promotes cooperation between its members, states and countries of Europe in the field of standards of law, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural interaction. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is an advisory body. PACE is Europe's oldest body for inter-parliamentary cooperation.

Main functions of PACE:

• Monitoring the observance of democratic standards and human rights in the Council of Europe countries.
• Consideration of international issues, including migration, refugees, minority rights, freedom of speech and the fight against corruption.
• Recommendations and resolutions for governments and parliaments of European countries.
• Electing key officials of the Council of Europe, including judges of the European Court of Human Rights.

PACE consists of representatives of national parliaments of 46 Council of Europe member states and is an important platform for international cooperation and human rights protection.

In January last year, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe unanimously adopted a resolution calling on member states to recognize the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia as genocide of the Ukrainian people.

Ірина Глухова