Overview
- The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, which approved the Extended Partial Agreement on Friday in Chișinău, created a Steering Committee that enables the tribunal to start operating.
- Thirty-six countries and the European Union signaled plans to join, with a list cited by Radio Svoboda naming 34 Council of Europe states plus Australia and Costa Rica.
- The Netherlands will host the first phase in The Hague, according to Dutch foreign minister Tom Berendsen.
- The tribunal is tasked with trying senior Russian political and military leaders for the crime of aggression, filling a gap the International Criminal Court cannot address because of procedural limits.
- Ministers also advanced reparations work as 38 countries and the EU signed a convention to form an International Commission on Claims, while the Damage Registry now involves 44 states plus the EU and has logged more than 150,000 claims.