Luxembourg Official Re-Elected as PACE President at Opening Winter Session

Before the session, PACE President Anne Brasseur noted that the re-election was "not difficult because there is no other candidate."

STRASBOURG, January 26 (Sputnik) — Luxembourgish politician Anne Brasseur was re-elected as president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Monday, as the assembly opened its winter session.

"Today, you have once again expressed your confidence in me," Brasseur was quoted as saying by a Sputnik correspondent as she was re-elected head of PACE.

Prior to the start of the session, Brasseur noted that the re-election was "not difficult because there is no other candidate."

Anne Brasseur has been re-elected as President of the @CoE Assembly for a second one-year term. Congratulations! pic.twitter.com/XhllJoXDtg

— PACE news (@PACE_News) 26 января 2015

First elected on January 28, 2014, Anne Brasseur presided over the suspension of the Moscow delegation's voting rights in the wake of Crimea's reunification with Russia last March. The Russian delegation walked out of the PACE spring session and did not attend its summer session in protest.

The five-day PACE winter session kicked off earlier on Monday, with the Russian delegation's credentials, the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and the January 7 Paris terrorist attacks expected to be on the meeting's agenda this week.

Established in 1949, and in charge of oversight of the European Court of Human Rights, PACE's mission is to uphold democracy, rule of law and human rights among the Council of Europe's 47 member states.