PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN (PAM)

assemblee parlementaire de la mediterranee (APM)

RULES OF PROCEDURE

Adopted on 11 September 2006 in Amman (Jordan) and revised on xx November 2007 in Valletta (Malta)

Rule 1

Organs

The structure of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean consists of the Assembly, the Bureau, the Standing Committees and the Secretariat.

Rule 2

Membership

2.1 The individual members forming part of national delegations must be members of their national parliaments.

2.2 The composition of national delegations and the appointment, removal or substitution of individual members thereof, shall be decided at the sole discretion of the national parliaments.

2.3 If individual members of the Assembly cease to be members of their national parliaments, they may continue to be members of the Assembly until a successor has been designated, but in any case for a period not exceeding six months.

2.4 National parliaments may also appoint alternates, whose numbers shall not exceed the number of individual members in each respective national delegation.

Rule 3

Credentials

3.1 Each Member Parliament of the PAM shall notify to the Secretariat the list of the five Parliamentarians who will compose its national delegation. The Secretariat shall be informed without delay of any modification regarding the list.

Rule 4

Election of Officers

4 .1 Unless elected by consensus, the President shall be elected by secret ballot. The candidate who obtains a four-fifths majority of the votes cast shall be declared elected.

4 .2 Whenever, in an election, the number of candidates is the same or less than the number of positions to be filled, the candidates shall be declared to be elected by acclamation.

4 .3 The Officers shall be elected by those members present and entitled to vote.

(moved to the Statutes)

Rule 5

The President

5.1 When the President chairs the session, he shall not vote on any matter on the Order of Business, including draft texts or elections.

5.2 The President shall initiate and undertake contacts and dialogues, and shall participate in meetings and forums which promote the aims and policies of the Assembly. The President shall report on these activities to the Assembly.

Rule 6

Vice-Presidents

6.1 A Vice-President, designated by the President, shall replace the President when the latter is unavailable during a debate of the Assembly. A Vice-President may furthermore be called upon by the President to fulfil certain representational obligations of the President.

Rule 7

Annual Session

7.1 The Assembly shall sit in public unless it decides otherwise.

Rule 8

Extraordinary Sessions

8.1 Extraordinary Sessions of the Assembly may be called in response to the emergence of exceptional circumstances in the Mediterranean region.

8.2 The Secretariat will be invited to provide all facilities for the convening of an Extraordinary Session of the Assembly. This would require a supplementary appropriation to the Budget, which must be approved by the Bureau.

Rule 9

Agenda

9.1 The Agenda of the Annual Session and any Extraordinary Session shall be prepared by the Bureau and submitted to the Assembly for its adoption.

9.2 The Agenda of each Annual Session of the Assembly shall include consideration of the reports of the three Standing Committees.

Rule 10

Minutes of Proceedings

The Minutes of Proceedings of the Annual Session, the Extraordinary Sessions, the Bureau and the Standing Committees, recording attendance and decisions reached, shall be drawn up and kept by the Secretariat. Upon completion, the national delegations shall receive a copy of these minutes.

Rule 11

Register of attendance

National delegations shall submit in due time to the Secretary General, the list of their members attending Sessions of the Assembly.

Rule 12

Urgent matters

12.1 Questions of urgency may be placed on the agenda of the Assembly at any time on the proposal of the Bureau. Such questions of urgency must be pertinent to the Mediterranean region and related to a particular event.

12.2 Such questions of urgency shall be proposed in the form of a draft resolution, which must be adopted by at least two thirds of the national delegations present and voting in the Assembly.

Rule 13

Right to speak

13.1 No Member of the Assembly may speak unless called upon by the President. Members shall speak from their places and shall address the President.

13.2 Members wishing to speak in a debate shall enter their names in the speakers’ register. The speakers’ list shall be the responsibility of the President.

13.3 A speaker may only be interrupted, with the permission of the President, on a point of order.

13.4 If a speaker departs from the subject, the President shall call him to order. If a speaker is called to order twice on the same item, the President may, on the third occasion, forbid him or her to speak on that item.

13.5 Unless the President decides to grant additional time, no Member may speak for more than 10 minutes, or for more than one minute on a point of order.

13. 6 The following criteria will be applied for drawing up the list of speakers:

a. Names will be entered in the register in chronological order of the arrival date and time of the request.

b. As soon as the draft order of business has been published names may be entered solely by fax (+ 0035622484215 ) or e-mail ( info@apm.org.mt ) addressed to the Table Office of the Assembly. These registrations must reach the Table Office before midnight on Friday preceding the opening of the forthcoming part-session. The income time will be used as the criteria for the chronological position of the registration.

c. As from the first day of the part session, names will be entered only by members of the Assembly themselves or secretaries of national delegations.

d. Any subsequent modification of a previous registration will be considered as a new registration and the name concerned will be placed at the end of the list.

e. The list of speakers for a debate shall be closed one hour before the scheduled end of the previous sitting preceding that in which the debate begins. The list for the first sitting of the part-session shall be closed one and a half hours before the opening of that sitting.

Rule 14

Voting procedures

14.1 The Assembly shall vote by a show of hands except in cases where a roll-call vote or secret ballot is requested.

14.2 For the election of the Officers of the Assembly, voting shall be by secret ballot.

14.3 The roll shall be called in alphabetical order, starting with the country whose name is drawn by lot.

14.4 Only affirmative and negative votes shall count in calculating the number of votes cast.

Rule 15

Right to vote

15.1 Only delegations of the Member Parliaments present shall have the right to vote.

15.2 Members shall not vote by proxy.

Rule 16

Quorum

16.1 Decisions in the Assembly, the Bureau and the Standing Committees may be taken only if at least 50 per cent plus one of the members of the Assembly are present.

16.2 In the absence of a quorum, the vote shall be postponed.

Rule 17

Standing Committees

Individual delegates on the Standing Committees shall be nominated by their respective national delegations.

Rule 18

Duties of the Standing Committees

18.1 The Standing Committees shall examine Mediterranean issues relevant to their areas of competence.

18.2 The Standing Committees shall examine all matters referred to them in pursuance of a decision taken by the Assembly, or in case of emergency, by the Bureau or the President.

18.3 The Standing Committees shall meet, separately, at least once a year to prepare proposals and reports to be submitted to the Assembly.

18.4 The meetings of the Standing Committees shall be held no later than two months prior to the regular Annual Session of the Assembly.

Rule 19

Languages of the Assembly

The official languages of the Assembly shall be Arabic, English and French.

Rule 20

Associated Members

20.1 On the proposal of the Bureau, the Assembly may grant Associated Member status to national parliaments of non-Mediterranean member states.

20.2 Any formal request for an Associated Member status shall be addressed to the President of the Assembly by the President of the parliament concerned.

20.3 If the Bureau approves the request, the President of the Assembly shall invite the parliament concerned to assume Associated Member status.

20.4 The number of members of an Associated Member delegation shall not exceed three seats.

20.5 A parliament with Associated Member status shall appoint members so as to ensure a fair representation of the political parties or groups in that parliament, as well as a fair gender balance.

20.6 Members of Associated Member delegations may sit in the Assembly but without the right to vote. They shall have the right to speak with the authorization of the President of the Assembly.

20.7 Members of Associated Member delegations may attend committee meetings, without the right of vote, if authorized by the President of the Assembly.

20.8 The Bureau, or at least ten members, may request to the President the suspension or withdrawal of the Associated Member status. In this case , the President shall immediately require the opinion of the Bureau.

20.9 The members of the Bureau shall be informed of the consideration of such a matter at least two weeks before the meeting of the Bureau at which it will take place. The decision of the Bureau shall be taken by consensus.

20.10 Where Associated Member status has been withdrawn, the parliament concerned shall make a further formal request if it wishes to assume this status again. Suspension of Associated Member status may be lifted by the Bureau deciding by a two-thirds majority if it considers that the conditions having led to the suspension no longer exist.

Rule 21

Observers and Special Guests

21.1 The Assembly may, on the proposal of the Bureau, grant Observer status to inter-parliamentary and other international organizations that are active in the Mediterranean region.

21.2 The number of members of a delegation cannot exceed more than three seats. The delegations concerned, in appointing their delegations, should reflect the various currents of opinion within their inter-parliamentary organizations.

21.3 Members of Observer delegations may sit in the Assembly but without the right to vote. They shall have the right to speak with the authorization of the President of the Assembly.

21.4 They can participate to the Commission meetings having the right to speak after the authorization of the President of the Assembly.

21.5 The Assembly may, on the proposal of the Bureau, invite as Special Guests representatives of institutions and experts to present reports or communications.

Rule 22

Observation of elections

22.1 The observation of parliamentary and presidential elections, as well as of referenda, may play an important role in the implementation of the Assembly mandate in the region. Subject to the agreement of the Bureau, and on a case by case, it shall entail the observation of elections in any Member or Associate Member whose parliament has requested the Assembly’s support. Participation by members shall be strictly on voluntary basis.

22.2 The Bureau of the Assembly may also decide to accept requests to observe elections in other States when important circumstances justify the request.

Rule 23

Secretariat

23.1 The Secretary General of the Assembly shall be in charge of the organisation of the Secretariat of the Assembly. The Secretary General or the Secretary General's representative shall assist the President in directing the work of the Assembly.

23.2 The Secretary General or the Secretary General's representative may at any time, at the request of the President, submit to the Assembly advice on any question, which the meeting has under consideration.

23.3 The Secretary General shall transmit to the Members of the Assembly, as rapidly as possible, all the documents sent for the Assembly.

23.4 The Secretariat of the Assembly shall receive all documents, reports and draft resolutions and distribute them, together with the summary records of the sittings, in English and French. It shall ensure the simultaneous interpretation of the debates in these two languages, as well as in Arabic.

23.5 The Secretariat of the Assembly shall preserve the documents of the Assembly in its archives and, in general, carry out all the tasks, which the Assembly may think fit to entrust to it.

23.6 The provisional summary record of each sitting shall be made available to delegates within forty-eight hours. Any delegate may request a rectification; in case of doubt the Bureau shall decide,on its admissibility.

23.7 Should the Assembly sit in private, it may decide that no records of the sitting be kept.

23.8 The final summary record of the proceedings shall be published and distributed before the following Assembly.

Rule 24

Close of the Assembly

24.1 At the close of each Assembly, the President shall enumerate the principal resolutions adopted.

24.2 It shall be the duty of the Members of the Assembly to submit the resolutions within their respective Parliaments, in an appropriate form, and to communicate them to their Governments with a view to obtaining the most active possible support for the implementation of these resolutions.

Rule 25

Amendments to the Rules of Procedure

25 .1 Any proposal to amend the Rules shall be submitted to the Secretariat in writing no less than three months before the Annual Session of the Assembly. The Secretariat shall immediately communicate all such proposed amendments to the members of the Assembly. The consideration of such amendments shall be automatically placed on the agenda of the Assembly. The Assembly shall decide on such proposals by consensus or by a four-fifths majority of the votes cast.

25.2 Any proposed amendments shall conform with the provisions of the Statutes of the Assembly.

Special Rules on Honorary Association with the Assembly

1. Conditions governing the award of the title of honorary associate of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean.

The title of “honorary associate of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean” may be used by:

a. any parliamentarian or former parliamentarian who has been a member of the Assembly, as a Representative or an Alternate, for two years consecutively or otherwise;

b. any other former member of the Assembly, however long his or her period of membership, who has held the post of President or Vice-President of the Assembly or Chairman of a Committee. A diploma and an identity card mentioning this title shall be issued to such persons at their request.

The above rules shall apply to former members of the Assembly and of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in the Mediterranean (CSCM).

2. Prerogatives of honorary associates:

a. All honorary associates of the Assembly shall have access, on presentation of their card, to the same premises as Representatives and Alternates to the Assembly, both in Malta and elsewhere, except the committee meeting rooms when in session.

b. At their request, they shall be included on the mailing lists for the Assembly’s official documents and for certain non-confidential committee documents.

c. They may be invited to the Assembly’s events apart from plenary sessions and committee meetings, on the initiative of those in charge of such events.

d. They may be appointed by the Committees on Dialogue and Human Rights to present PAM’s prizes to individuals, institutions and organizations to which these awards may be granted.

3. Honorary President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean

The regulations for Honorary President of the Assembly follow, mutatis mutandis, those of the Honorary Associates of the Assembly and similar provisions existing in national parliaments and international parliamentary assemblies. The decision to grant the title of Honorary President falls within the competence of the Bureau of the Assembly.

4. Conditions for conferring the title of Honorary President of the Parliamentary

Assembly:

May be considered for this title any former President of the Assembly who exercised the functions of President for at least one term (two years). Upon request, the Honorary President will be given a diploma and an identity card mentioning this title.

5. Prerogatives linked to the quality of Honorary President of the Parliamentary

Assembly:

a. The Honorary President can use this title in all activities of a public character such as publication of articles and books, lectures;

b. upon presentation of his card, the Honorary President will have access to the buildings of the PAM in Malta as well as to the Organisation’s external events except for committee meeting rooms while there are meeting;

c. upon request, the Honorary President can be included in the mailing lists for non-confi-dential documents of the Assembly and its organs and could request access to the non-confi-dential databases of the PAM;

d. the Honorary President can be invited to specific events organised by the Assembly or its committees, upon the initiative of those responsible for the event;

e. the Committees on Dialogue and Human Rights can appoint the Honorary President to present PAM’s prizes to award-winning individuals, institutions and organizations;

f. the Secretary General of the PAM can grant the Honorary President all facilities of an administrative kind compatible with existing regulations.

5.1 The above provisions are applicable to former Presidents of the Assembly provided they are no longer a member of the Parliamentary Assembly.

5.2 These special rules shall not have any financial implications for the budget of the Assembly, the only exception being expenses under paragraph 2.e above.

6. Honorary Secretary General of the Assembly

6.1 The regulations for the rank of Honorary Secretary General follow, mutatis mutandis, those of the Honorary Associates of the Parliamentary Assembly and similar provisions existing in national parliaments and international parliamentary assemblies.

6.2 Concerning the conditions for conferring the title, they are based on the following principles:

– it is for the Bureau alone to decide whether the honorary title should be given as far as the Secretary General is elected by the Parliamentary Assembly;

– as a general rule, the Honorary Secretary General should have completed at least a full four-year mandate as Secretary General.

6.3 The prerogatives linked to the quality of Honorary Secretary General are the following:

– the Honorary Secretary General can use this title for life in all activities of a public character such as publication of articles and books, lectures, as well as in civil status acts;

– the Honorary Secretary General will have access to the buildings of the PAM in Malta as well as to the Assembly’s external events;

– upon request, the Honorary Secretary General can be included in the mailing lists for non-confidential documents of the Assembly and its organs and could request access to the non-confidential databases of the PAM;

– the Honorary Secretary General can be invited to events organised by the Assembly outside plenary sessions and committee meetings, upon the initiative of those responsible for the event;

- upon request, the Honorary Secretary General will be given an identity card mentioning this title;

- the Committees on Dialogue and Human Rights can appoint the Honorary Secretary General to present PAM prizes to award-winning individuals, institutions and organizations;

- the Secretary General of the PAM can grant the Honorary Secretary General of the Assembly all the administrative facilities compatible with existing regulations.