Europe’s leading human rights body is confronting a budget crisis linked to a row with Russia over money, which could ricochet into the furious debate between western countries and Moscow over the UK nerve agent attack.

The Council of Europe, the 47-nation organisation that oversees the European court of human rights, faces a shortfall of at least €42.65m (£37.6m), 10% of its annual budget, according to an official report, meaning it could be forced to cut jobs.

The organisation is facing “an unprecedented budgetary crisis”, according to the report, following Russia’s decision to suspend payments in 2017 over its representation in the council’s Strasbourg assembly and Turkey’s decision to slash its contributions.

Senior members will meet in Paris on Friday to discuss the report, which calls for “drastic measures” in response to “the draconian reduction” in spending for the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace). Drafted by the Belgian MP Petra de Sutter, the text says the assembly could lose 9% of its funding.

However, the unofficial funding gap is closer to €53m, as Russia missed a payment deadline in February.

The budget crunch is likely to play into the fraught debate over whether Russia should remain a member of the Council of Europe. The continent’s guardian of democracy and human rights, which is separate from the EU, was set up in 1949 and its membership spans the continent. Russia joined in 1996, but Moscow has become increasingly angered by ECHR rulings during Vladimir Putin’s time in power.

In the House of Commons on Wednesday, Conservative MP Sir Christopher Chope called on Theresa May to ensure the UK could expel Russia from the Council of Europe as a “reprisal” for the nerve agent attack.



Sir Roger Gale, the Conservative MP who chairs the British delegation at Pace, told the Guardian the UK could not act alone. “The Council of Europe, if it is going to maintain its credibility, cannot allow one country to flout so flagrantly the rules of the assembly – which is what they are doing,” he said, referring to Russia’s non-payments. “If you add to that the events of the last few days, then there is a strong case for saying they have no place in the Council of Europe.”



Its secretary general, Thorbjørn Jagland, wants to keep Russia as a member so its 140 million people have access to the court of human rights. Jagland’s spokesman said: “He emphasises the ECHR and the court continue to be of vital importance for Russian citizens and that therefore a departure of Russia from the Council of Europe would make things even worse from a human rights perspective.”.

Russian human rights activists, battling a heavily politicised judicial system at home, fear ordinary people would lose human rights protections if Russia left.



Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman said earlier this month that she could neither “confirm nor deny” reports that Russia intended to leave the council, adding it was evident that relations were “currently going through a crisis”.

Countries are split over how and when Russian delegates could return to the parliamentary assembly. Russian deputies walked out of the assembly in 2014 after losing their voting rights, following the annexation of Crimea.

Moscow insists it will not restore payments until its deputies sit in the chamber again. Western MPs say Russia has chosen not to take part in the assembly, after the one year ban on voting expired in 2015.

Russia’s refusal to pay cost the council €22.65m in 2017, while the Strasbourg human rights body was hit by Turkey’s abrupt decision to reduce payments by €20m. Along with the UK, France, Germany and Italy, Turkey and Russia had the status of grands payeurs, contributing the lion’s share of the budget.

Insiders fear there will be job losses. The institution has already been trimming costs by not replacing some staff and reducing the number of reports it produces.



“The cumulative effect of Russia not paying very considerable sums of money and Turkey reducing its status from grand payeur to ordinary payer has a significant impact,” Gale said. “We are going to have to look very seriously at staffing levels and the size of the delegations … There may have to be redundancies. Nobody likes that, but we do have to act responsibly.”

Jagland will raise the issue at a ministerial meeting next Wednesday. “No major cuts to staff or programmes have been decided so far,” his spokesman said.

A proposal for Turkish to be dropped as a working language to save money, reversing a 2015 decision after Ankara decided to become one of the big payers, will be debated by Pace in Paris on Friday.

