{"id":21795,"date":"2022-03-19T20:30:38","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T03:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=21795"},"modified":"2022-03-19T20:30:40","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T03:30:40","slug":"council-of-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/19\/council-of-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"COUNCIL OF EUROPE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conseil de l\u2019Europe<\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Logo<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Flag<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/tr>
ABBREVIATION<\/th>CoE<\/td><\/tr>
FORMATION<\/th>Treaty of London<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
TYPE<\/th>Regional<\/a> intergovernmental organisation<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
HEADQUARTERS<\/th>Palace of Europe<\/a>, Strasbourg<\/a>, France<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
LOCATION<\/th>Europe<\/a>[b]<\/a><\/sup><\/td><\/tr>
MEMBERSHIP<\/th>46 member states<\/a>5 Council observers3 Assembly observers<\/td><\/tr>
OFFICIAL LANGUAGES<\/th>English<\/a>, French<\/a>
Other working languages: German<\/a>, Italian<\/a>[1]<\/a><\/sup>[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/td><\/tr>
SECRETARY GENERAL<\/th>Marija Pej\u010dinovi\u0107 Buri\u0107<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL<\/th>Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY<\/a><\/th>Tiny Kox<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
PRESIDENT OF THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS<\/a><\/th>Luigi Di Maio<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
PRESIDENT OF THE CONGRESS<\/a><\/th>Anders Knape<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
WEBSITE<\/th>coe.int<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

The Council of Europe<\/strong> (CoE<\/strong>; French<\/a>: Conseil de l\u2019Europe<\/em>, CdE<\/em>) is an international organisation<\/a> founded in the wake of World War II<\/a> to uphold human rights<\/a>, democracy<\/a>, and the rule of law<\/a> in Europe<\/a>.[3]<\/a><\/sup> Founded in 1949, it has 46 member states, with a population of approximately 675 million, and operates with an annual budget of approximately 500 million euros<\/a>.[4]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organisation is distinct from the European Union<\/a> (EU), although it is sometimes confused with it, partly because the EU has adopted the original European flag<\/a>, created for the Council of Europe in 1955,[5]<\/a><\/sup> as well as the European anthem<\/a>.[6]<\/a><\/sup> The Council of Europe is an official United Nations Observer<\/a>.[7]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being an international organization, the Council of Europe cannot make laws, but it does have the ability to push for the enforcement of select international agreements reached by member states on various topics. The best known body of the Council of Europe is the European Court of Human Rights<\/a>, which functions on the basis of the European Convention on Human Rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council\u2019s two statutory bodies are the Committee of Ministers<\/a>, comprising the foreign ministers of each member state, and the Parliamentary Assembly<\/a>, composed of members of the national parliaments of each member state. The Commissioner for Human Rights<\/a> is an institution within the Council of Europe, mandated to promote awareness of and respect for human rights in the member states. The Secretary General<\/a> presides over the secretariat of the organisation. Other major CoE bodies include the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines<\/a> and the European Audiovisual Observatory<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The headquarters of the Council of Europe, as well as its Court of Human Rights, are situated in Strasbourg<\/a>, France<\/a>. English<\/a> and French<\/a> are its two official languages<\/a>. The Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly, and the Congress of the Council of Europe<\/a> also use German<\/a> and Italian<\/a> for some of their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Plaque commemorating the first session of the Council of Europe Assembly at Strasbourg University<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founding<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In a speech in 1929, French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand<\/a> floated the idea of an organisation which would gather European nations together in a \u201cfederal union\u201d to resolve common problems.[8]<\/a><\/sup> But it was Britain\u2019s wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill<\/a> who first publicly suggested the creation of a \u201cCouncil of Europe\u201d in a BBC radio broadcast on 21 March 1943,[9]<\/a><\/sup> while the Second World War was still raging. In his own words,[10]<\/a><\/sup> he tried to \u201cpeer through the mists of the future to the end of the war\u201d, and think about how to re-build and maintain peace on a shattered continent. Given that Europe had been at the origin of two world wars, the creation of such a body would be, he suggested, \u201ca stupendous business\u201d. He returned to the idea during a well-known speech at the University of Zurich<\/a> on 19 September 1946,[11]<\/a><\/sup>[12]<\/a><\/sup> throwing the full weight of his considerable post-war prestige behind it. But there were many other statesmen and politicians across the continent, many of them members of the European Movement<\/a>, who were quietly working towards the creation of the council. Some regarded it as a guarantee that the horrors of war could never again be visited on the continent, others came to see it as a \u201cclub of democracies\u201d, built around a set of common values that could stand as a bulwark against totalitarian states belonging to the Eastern Bloc<\/a>. Others again saw it as a nascent \u201cUnited States of Europe\u201d, the resonant phrase that Churchill had reached for at Zurich in 1946.Session of the Council of Europe\u2019s Parliamentary Assembly in the former House of Europe<\/a> in Strasbourg in 1967. Willy Brandt<\/a>, German Minister for Foreign Affairs<\/a>, is speaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future structure of the Council of Europe was discussed at the Congress of Europe<\/a> which brought together several hundred leading politicians, government representatives and members of civil society in The Hague<\/a>, Netherlands<\/a>, in 1948. There were two competing schools of thought: some favoured a classical international organisation with representatives of governments, while others preferred a political forum with parliamentarians. Both approaches were finally combined through the creation of a Committee of Ministers (in which governments were represented) and a Consultative Assembly (in which parliaments were represented), the two main bodies mentioned in the Statute of the Council of Europe. This dual intergovernmental and inter-parliamentary structure was later copied for the European Communities<\/a>, NATO<\/a> and OSCE<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Council of Europe was signed into existence on 5 May 1949 by the Treaty of London<\/a>, the organisation\u2019s founding Statute which set out the three basic values that should guide its work: democracy, human rights and the rule of law. It was signed in London on that day by ten states: Belgium<\/a>, Denmark<\/a>, France<\/a>, Ireland<\/a>, Italy<\/a>, Luxembourg<\/a>, the Netherlands<\/a>, Norway<\/a>, Sweden<\/a> and the United Kingdom<\/a>, though Turkey<\/a> and Greece<\/a> joined three months later. On 10 August 1949, 100 members of the council\u2019s Consultative Assembly, parliamentarians drawn from the twelve member nations, met in Strasbourg for its first plenary session, held over 18 sittings and lasting nearly a month. They debated how to reconcile and reconstruct a continent still reeling from war, yet already facing a new East\u2013West divide, launched the concept of a trans-national court to protect the basic human rights of every citizen, and took the first steps in a process that would eventually lead to the creation of the European Union<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 1949, Paul-Henri Spaak<\/a> resigned as Belgium\u2019s Foreign Minister in order to be elected as the first President of the Assembly. Behind the scenes, he too had been quietly working towards the creation of the council, and played a key role in steering its early work. However, in December 1951, after nearly three years in the role, Spaak resigned in disappointment after the Assembly rejected proposals for a \u201cEuropean political authority\u201d.[13]<\/a><\/sup> Convinced that the Council of Europe was never going to be in a position to achieve his long-term goal of a unified Europe,[14]<\/a><\/sup> he soon tried again in a new and more promising format, based this time on economic integration, becoming one of the founders of the European Union<\/a>.[15]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early years<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There was huge enthusiasm for the Council of Europe in its early years, as its pioneers set about drafting what was to become the European Convention on Human Rights<\/a>, a charter of individual rights which \u2013 it was hoped \u2013 no member government could ever again violate. They drew, in part, on the tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights<\/a>, signed only a few months earlier in Paris. But crucially, where the Universal Declaration was essentially aspirational, the European Convention from the beginning featured an enforcement mechanism \u2013 an international Court \u2013 which was to adjudicate on alleged violations of its articles and hold governments to account, a dramatic leap forward for international justice. Today, this is the European Court of Human Rights<\/a>, whose rulings are binding on 47 European nations, the most far-reaching system of international justice anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the council\u2019s first acts was to welcome West Germany<\/a> into its fold on 2 May 1951,[16]<\/a><\/sup> setting a pattern of post-war reconciliation that was to become a hallmark of the council, and beginning a long process of \u201cenlargement\u201d which was to see the organisation grow from its original ten founding member states to the 47 nations that make up the Council of Europe today.[17]<\/a><\/sup> Iceland had already joined in 1950, followed in 1956 by Austria, Cyprus in 1961, Switzerland in 1963 and Malta in 1965.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historic speeches at the Council of Europe<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Winston Churchill<\/a>\u2018s inaugural speech of the Council of Europe in The Hague<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, an archive of all speeches made to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe<\/a> by heads of state or government since the Council of Europe\u2019s creation in 1949 appeared online, the fruit of a two-year project entitled \u201cVoices of Europe\u201d.[18]<\/a><\/sup> At the time of its launch,[19]<\/a><\/sup> the archive comprised 263 speeches delivered over a 70-year period by some 216 Presidents, Prime Ministers, monarchs and religious leaders from 45 countries \u2013 though it continues to expand, as new speeches are added every few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some very early speeches by individuals considered to be \u201cfounding figures\u201d of the European institutions, even if they were not heads of state or government at the time, are also included (such as Sir Winston Churchill<\/a> or Robert Schuman<\/a>). Addresses by eight monarchs appear in the list (such as King Juan Carlos I of Spain<\/a>, King Albert II of Belgium<\/a> and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg<\/a>) as well as the speeches given by religious figures (such as Pope John Paul II<\/a>, and Pope Francis<\/a>) and several leaders from countries in the Middle East and North Africa (such as Shimon Peres<\/a>, Yasser Arafat<\/a>, Hosni Mubarak<\/a>, L\u00e9opold S\u00e9dar Senghor<\/a> or King Hussein of Jordan<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The full text of the speeches is given in both English and French, regardless of the original language used. The archive is searchable by country, by name, and chronologically.[20]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aims and achievement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Article 1(a) of the Statute states that \u201cThe aim of the Council of Europe is to achieve a greater unity between its members for the purpose of safeguarding and realising the ideals and principles which are their common heritage and facilitating their economic and social progress.\u201d[21]<\/a><\/sup> Membership is open to all European states who seek harmony, cooperation, good governance and human rights, accepting the principle of the rule of law and are able and willing to guarantee democracy, fundamental human rights and freedoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whereas the member states of the European Union transfer part of their national legislative and executive powers to the European Commission<\/a> and the European Parliament<\/a>, Council of Europe member states maintain their sovereignty but commit themselves through conventions\/treaties (international law<\/a>) and co-operate on the basis of common values and common political decisions. Those conventions and decisions are developed by the member states working together at the Council of Europe. Both organisations function as concentric circles around the common foundations for European co-operation and harmony, with the Council of Europe being the geographically wider circle. The European Union could be seen as the smaller circle with a much higher level of integration through the transfer of powers from the national to the EU level. \u201cThe Council of Europe and the European Union: different roles, shared values.\u201d[22]<\/a><\/sup> Council of Europe conventions\/treaties are also open for signature to non-member states, thus facilitating equal co-operation with countries outside Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Council of Europe\u2019s most famous achievement is the European Convention on Human Rights<\/a>, which was adopted in 1950 following a report by the Council of Europe\u2019s Parliamentary Assembly, and followed on from the United Nations \u2018Universal Declaration of Human Rights<\/a>\u2018 (UDHR).[23]<\/a><\/sup> The Convention created the European Court of Human Rights<\/a> in Strasbourg. The Court supervises compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights and thus functions as the highest European court. It is to this court that Europeans can bring cases if they believe that a member country has violated their fundamental rights and freedoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The various activities and achievements of the Council of Europe can be found in detail on its official website. The Council of Europe works in the following areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n