PACE President Anna Brasseur has urged members of European parliaments to adopt a position regarding a Russia's decision to annex Crimea.
"The assembly has to decide what action we are going to take," she said in her opening speech of the assembly's spring session in Strasbourg.
Brasseur said that PACE members must during this part-session discuss the consequences of the annexation of Crimea and be able to make to the search for solutions to this serious crisis.
"It is our duty to react to actions by one of our member states – Russia. Respect for territorial integrity is one of our most fundamental rules, and one of the commitments which all member states are required to make," PACE president said.
Brasseur informed that she took the initiative of contacting by telephone both the Duma Chairman and the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.
Besides, last week she had long conversations with the Russian and Ukrainian ambassadors, and also raised the subject of the crisis with UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon.
She stressed that dialogue was one of organization's preferred instruments, but that assembly can't ignore "Crimea's annexation."
