§ Lord Lester of Herneasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer given by Baroness Chalker of Wallasey of 12 February 1996 (WA 35), which of the specific points contained in the Parliamentary Assembly's opinion about the 86WA accession of the Russian Federation to the Council of Europe they do not wish to he construed as having endorsed.
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Chalker of Wallasey)We have consistently expressed our concern at the growing list of conditions imposed by the Parliamentary Assembly on new member states. In monitoring Russia's (and others) compliance with commitments, we arc sure that governments will wish to make a broad political assessment rather than take a detailed approach to these points. But as an illustration. and in Russia's case, for example, we would not wish to endorse the recommendation in paragraph 11 (iii) that an increase in the means and capabilities of the assembly he guaranteed in advance. Neither would we wish to endorse paragraph 10v of the Opinion to sign and ratify the Charter on Local Self-Government nor the Charter for Regional and Minority Languages (we currently reserve our position on both).