Dear Colleagues,The Sub-Committee held its meeting in Lisbon on 19 April 2009 in which thefollowing Members participated:Pia Christmas-Moeller (Denmark), Chairperson;Joao Soares, President (Portugal), ex-officio Member;Goran Lennmarker (Sweden),President Emeritus;Roberto Battelli (Slovenia),Special Representative;Alcee L. Hastings (USA),Special Representative;Alexander Kozlovskiy (Russian Federation), Head of Delegation.In the light of discussions I would like to summarize the conclusions we have arrivedat on the proposals received by the Sub-Committee. Of course, it does not excludeany further ideas or considerations, which members of the Sub-Committee may haveregarding the Rules.1. Amendment Submitted by Wolfgang Thierse (Germany) on Follow-Up (Rule 36,paragraph 4 “Powersand Duties of Committees”)It was proposed that the follow-up reports prepared by the Vice-Chair of each GeneralCommittee shall be presented by them at the Fall Meeting of the year following theAnnual Session.Members of the Sub-Committee supported the amendment with a minor changewhich reads now as follows:“These reports shall be presented by the Vice-Chairs atthe next Annual Session.”The reason behind this change was that the GeneralCommittees do not meet during the Fall Meeting of the Assembly.2. Proposals by the OSCE PA International SecretariatRule 21, paragraph 2“Compromise Supplementary Items”Members agreed with the Secretariat’s proposal, which is intended to facilitate suchcompromises whenever possible.

Rule 23 paragraph 1“Compromise Amendments”Members agreed with the Secretariat’s proposal, which is intended to provide moretime for submitting a compromise amendment.Rule 23 (a)“Validation of signatures”Members agreed with the Secretariat’s proposal with a slight change to the originalproposed text. The following text reads as follows:“The signatures of Members of the Assembly who signed a supplementary item or anamendment are valid provided they register for the Annual Session”.The reason forthis proposal was that some Members of Parliament signed supplementary items andamendments, without being members of the Assembly, or while being members of theAssembly they did not register for the Annual Session.Rule 40, paragraph 2“Budget and Finance”Members agreed with the Secretariat’s proposal that the draft annual budget should becirculated no later than thirty days prior to the Annual Session. The reason for thisproposal was that some Delegations have expressed their wish to receive the draftbudget early before the Standing Committee meeting in order to have more time toexamine it.Rule 44“Non-Governmental Organizations”Members agreed with the proposal to add a new paragraph clarifying the process forparticipation of Non-Governmental Organizations. The proposal outlines that NGOswith whom the Assembly does not have ‘permanent co-operation’ may attendAssembly meetings if their participation is supported in writing by the Head of aNational Delegation. The reason for this proposal was that the Secretariat does nothave all of the necessaryinformationrelated to NGOs in question and cannot take theresponsibility for their participation in sessions.At the same time there were different views expressed in the Sub-Committeeregarding Assembly’s permanent co-operation with NGOs as it is indicated in the 1stparagraph of the Rule. It was decided to discuss this paragraph at the next Sub-Committee meeting.3. Amendment Submitted by Vice-President Tone TIngsgaard (Sweden) on GenderEquality (Rule 30

“Right to Vote”)

There were different opinions expressed in the Sub-Committee on resolving the issueof gender equality. It was decided to suggest a new wording related to the amendmentadding a new paragraph 4 to Rule 1 onComposition of the Assembly,which wouldread as follows: “Each national Delegation should have both genders represented.”The reason for this decision was that while the Committee Members fully shared Ms.Tingsgaard approach to promoting a better gender balance in the Assembly, they wereagainst removing voting rights which could effect 16 delegations having only male

3members in the Assembly. It is well known that some participating States for differentreasons have been experiencing problems with recruiting women to serve on theirdelegations.Meanwhile the Sub-Committee agreed to come back to this issue again in a couple ofyears to examine how this new rule works.4. Amendment Submitted by Michel Voisin (France) on Vote by Proxy (Rule 30)Members could not agree with this proposal, which would have permittedparliamentarians to appoint a proxy to vote in their place, as they identified a numberof problems related to such proxy voting. Instead it was suggested to draft a newamendment enabling early voting which would give Members of the Assembly theopportunity to leave the Annual Session early to ensure their national obligations(effectively codifying current practice). It was decided to examine this newamendment at the next Sub-Committee meeting.5. Amendment Submitted by Michel Voisin on Monitoring Procedure (Rule 31)Members agreed with the amendment and would recommend it to the StandingCommittee prior to the Annual Session in Vilnius.6.Concluding its work the Sub-Committee decided to hold another meeting in Dublin onthe sidelines of the OSCE PA Economic Conference.