ABSTRACT: The rules are divided into 7 chapters and 17 articles (with paragraphs): 1) Members; observers and experts; office of the Presidency; secretariat; 2) Summons; conduction of plenary sessions; right to speak; procedure resolutions; 3) Resolutions and recommendations; order of business of the Assembly; amendments; 4) Election of the members of the Assembly of parliamentarians at the General Council; 5) Voting procedure; majority vote; binding contents of the documents approved; 6) official languages; 7) report on the proceedings of the assembly.

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CHAPTER 1

Article 1: Members

1. The Assembly is formed of all those parliamentarians who are members of the Radical Party in the year in question (both members of the European Parliament and members of national parliaments), ministers currently in office and ex-ministers who are members of the Radical Party in the year in question, the President of the Party (who is a member in all respects), the Secretary, the Treasurer and the President of the General Council, and the members of the Secretarial Committee and the Treasury Committee of the Radical Party, without voting rights.

2. In plenary sessions, seating will be arranged according to alphabetical order.

Article 2: Observers and experts

1. Places will be reserved for those participants who have been given consultant status or who have been invited to attend proceedings as observers or experts.

2. Observers and experts do not have voting rights, but the Assembly can give them leave to speak. They can make written declarations to the Assembly, presenting such documents to the President.

Article 3: Presidency

In accordance with the Statute, the Assembly of Parliamentarians is chaired by the President of the Radical Party, who follows the activity of the members of the Assembly.

2. The Assembly of Parliamentarians shall elect a first Vice-President and five Vice-Presidents with the duty, in collaboration with and on the request of the President, of directing the proceedings of the Assembly, ensuring the successful progress of the proceedings, and performing the tasks assigned to them by these Regulations.

3. The President and the Vice-Presidents shall form the Presidency of the Assembly. The Secretary, the Treasurer and the President of the General Council of the Radical Party shall take part in the proceedings of the Presidency without voting rights.

Article 4: Secretarial Committee

The Assembly of Parliamentarians shall be assisted by a General Secretary nominated by the Presidency on the proposal of the Secretary of the Party.

The General Secretary shall co-ordinate the activities of the Secretarial Committee designated by the President on the proposal of the Secretary and the Treasurer of the Party.

The General Secretary, as well as ensuring, under the authority of the Presidency, the successful progress of the meetings of the Assembly and of the Presidency, shall also ensure, under the responsibility of the President, and in agreement with the other executive organs of the Party, the implementation of the texts adopted, the conformity of the texts of proposals for common parliamentary and legislative initiatives for presentation in parliaments, and the consequent co-ordination of operations.

CHAPTER II

Article 5: Convocation

1. The Assembly shall be convened during the proceedings of the Congress in order to elect its members on the General Council and, subsequently, ordinarily once a year, for the discussion of a previously established agenda.

2. The Assembly can also be convened for extraordinary meetings by the President, on the request of the Secretary or the Treasurer, or if a request is presented by at least one third of the members.

3. Notification of the date and the place of meetings must be given at least fifty days in advance. For extraordinary meetings, notification must be given at least twenty-five days in advance.

Article 6: Plenary sessions

1. The sessions of the Assembly shall be public, as shall the minutes of proceedings published under the responsibility of the Presidency.

2) The duties of the President are as follows:

a) to open, suspend, and close sessions;

b) to ensure that the Regulations are respected;

c) to chair the debates of the Assembly;

d) to maintain order, give leave to speak, close debates, put issues to the vote and proclaim the results of votes.

3) On the proposal of the President, the Assembly can decide to suspend plenary sessions for meetings of the committees. The committees shall report in the next plenary session on the conclusions of their proceedings.

Article 7: The right to speak

1. Members who ask for leave to speak shall be enrolled in the list of speakers. Members can only speak when invited to do so by the President.

2. The President shall give leave to speak according to the order of enrolment, trying as far as possible to alternate speakers of different opinions and languages.

3. The President can, in order to ensure the successful progress of proceedings, propose a time limit on speeches.

4. There will be no time limit on speeches by the President, the Secretary, the Treasurer and the President of the General Council.

5. Speeches shall be limited to three minutes for:

a) declarations of voting intentions;

b) appeals to the regulations;

c) procedural motions;

d) personal declarations;

e) requests to adjourn proceedings

f) illustrations of emendments.

Article 8: Procedural motions

1. Leave to speak shall be granted first to members who have applied for:

a) a procedural motion;

b) an appeal to the regulations;

c) a request to adjourn proceedings.

2) The requests referred to in section 1 have precedence over the main issue and suspend debate of the same.

3) The President, having verified the admissibility of motions, shall put them to the vote after calling upon one speaker in favour and one against.

CHAPTER III

Article 9: Motions and recommendations.

1. In accordance with these Regulations, motions and recommendations are the texts of resolutions submitted for the vote of the Assembly. Resolutions can be either motions are recommendations.

2. In accordance with the decisions of Congress and in the framework of the priorities, the projects and the political campaigns established by the General Council, the Secretary and the Treasurer of the Party shall present to the Assembly motions for common parliamentary and legislative initiative to be carried out in the ambit of all or some of the parliaments to which the members of the Assembly belong. In accordance with the same conditions, the President or at least forty members can also present motions for common parliamentary and legislative initiative. The general debate shall take place on these motions.

3. All members can present recommendations. In order to be deposited, a recommendation must be signed by at least twenty members.

4. A statement of motives can be attached to the text of a motion or a recommendation in order to illustrate its content. The statement of motives shall not be put to the vote.

5. Recommendations are to be presented to the Presidency, which will evaluate its admissibility.

6. It is the responsibility of the Presidency to propose the inclusion of a recommendation in the agenda of the Assembly.

Article 10: Order of proceedings of the Assembly

1. The Assembly will first of all discuss and vote on motions for common parliamentary and legislative initiatives; subsequently, the Presidency shall propose the procedure to be followed with regard to recommendations.

2. Motions and recommendations can be emended.

3. When the general debate and the examination of texts has reached conclusion, declarations of voting intentions can be made before the final vote.

Article 11: Emendments

1. All members can present emendments to the texts of the resolutions. In order to be deposited, an emendment must be signed by at least ten members if it concerns motions for common parliamentary and legislative initiative, and by at least five members if it regards recommendations.

2. Emendments shall concern the text they intend to modify. Emendments shall be signed by their authors and presented in time to be distributed before the relative debate. The President shall decide on the admissibility of an emendment; the Presidency shall set the deadline for the presentation of emendments.

3. Emendments have precedence in the debate over the text, and shall be put to the vote before the text itself.

4. If two or more emendments concern the same section of a resolution, the emendment which is furthest from the original text has precedence over the others and is put to the vote first. If it is approved, the other emendments will be rejected. If it is not approved, a vote will be taken on the emendment which thus comes to have precedence, and so on for each of the subsequent emendments. In the case of doubt over precedence, the President shall have the power of decision.

CHAPTER IV

Article 12: Elections of members of the Assembly of Parliamentarians to the General Council.

1. The Assembly of Parliamentarians elects twenty-five of its members to the General Council.

2. The election of members to the General Council will be carried out on the basis of fixed, opposing lists; the number of candidates on each list must be no more than two-thirds of the total number of candidates.

The division of places between the opposing lists will take place on a majority basis, with two-thirds of the places for the list which obtains the majority of votes and one third for the other list.

If there are more than two lists, the division of the one third of places among the lists which have not obtained the majority will take place on a proportional basis; within each list places will be assigned according to the order in which the candidates have been presented.

Each list must also contain a number of substitute candidates equal to half the total number of candidates.

TEMPORARY RULE

For its first meeting, in accordance with the motion of Congress voted on 8 February 1993, the Assembly of Parliamentarians will elect forty of its members to the General Council according to the procedures outlined in article 11, section 2.

CHAPTER V

Article 13: Voting procedure

1. All members of the Assembly have the right to vote. Voting by proxy is not permitted.

2. Members shall vote by raising their hands. If the result is contested, the vote shall be repeated. If the result is contested again, the Assembly shall vote by rising and sitting.

3. If requested by at least forty members, voting will take place verbally.

4. When called upon to vote verbally, members must respond "yes", "no", or "abstention".

5. The President is responsible for counting the votes and will the proclaim the result of the vote. For approval or rejection, account will be taken in the count only of votes for and against.

6. If the number of votes for and against is the same, the resolution or the emendment will be rejected.

Article 14: Majority vote

1. Decisions shall be taken on the basis of the majority of votes cast.

Article 15: Binding content of documents adopted.

1. Motions for common parliamentary and legislative initiative adopted with the participation of at least one quarter of members shall be binding for the executive organs of the Party, as well as for the members of the Assembly who are called upon to implement them.

Recommendations are addressed to the executive organs: the Secretary and the Treasurer shall report to the Assembly on the implementation of the motions and of the recommendations addressed to them at the following meeting.

CHAPTER VI

Article 16: Official languages

1. The official languages of the Assembly shall be French, English, Russian, Italian, and the language of the host country.

2. Speeches made in one of the official languages shall be translated simultaneously into the other official languages.

CHAPTER VII

Article 17: Report on the proceedings of the Assembly.

1. The Presidency shall be responsible for providing a report on the proceedings of the Assembly to each member.

2. This report shall contain the minutes, the texts adopted and the list of participants. Members who wish to present additional points can ask for them to be included in the report on the proceedings of the Assembly.