Lawmakers Should Not Face Sanctions During Int’l Duties – OSCE PA Head

Lawmakers should not be restricted in their movements while performing international duties, the president of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) told Sputnik on Wednesday.

ULAN BATOR (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova – Finland denied entry visas in July to a group of Russian lawmakers, blacklisted by the European Union over the Ukrainian crisis, intending to take part in the OSCE PA summer session. The entire Russian delegation withdrew from the parliamentary session in protest of Helsinki’s denial.

"The parliamentarians cannot be restricted as they need to fulfill their duties within the international cooperation. I am expecting that we will find solution for this problem soon," Ilkka Kanerva, a member of the Finnish Parliament, said.

Following the visa denial, Kanerva said that there was a range of issues that it would be impossible to resolve without Russia’s participation.

"That is why I have been active to offer an initiative to the EU that we should change our implementation and regulations in the EU so we will not repeat this kind of event," he stressed.

Sergei Naryshkin, Russia’s parliamentary speaker and OSCE PA delegation head was also denied entry this summer. He called Finland’s move a "manifestation of political shamelessness" earlier in the day, speaking from the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator.

Naryshkin said he had introduced a draft resolution to the Assembly prohibiting sanctions against members of parliament.

The three-day OSCE PA session opened on Wednesday, bringing together lawmakers from OSCE participating states. Nearly 200 parliamentarians from 57 countries gathered there for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s 2015 Autumn Meeting.