France urges to preserve Russia’s Council of Europe membership

France is urging all the Council of Europe’s member-countries to support efforts for preserving Russia’s CE membership being taken by the current Finnish presidency, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

He recalled that French President Emmanuel Macron "has confirmed the importance of finding a solution that would preserve Russia’s membership of the Council of Europe.

Speaking at a joint news conference with the Council of Europe’s Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland in Paris on May 6, Macron said that France would like Russia to continue to participate in CE activities, TASS recalls.

Jagland expressed a similar viewpoint at the beginning of April. Speaking at a congress of local and regional authorities in Strasbourg Jagland voiced the hope that Russia would remain a CE member after June 2019.