Council Of
The Council of Europe (French: Conseil de l'Europe ) is the oldest international organisation working towards European integration, having been founded in 1949. It has a particular emphasis on legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. It has 47 member states with some 800 million citizens.
Its statutory institutions are the Committee of Ministers comprising the foreign ministers of each member state, the Parliamentary Assembly composed of MPs from the Parliament of each member state, and the Secretary General heading the secretariat of the Council of Europe.
The most famous conventional bodies of the Council of Europe are the European Court of Human Rights, which enforces the European Convention on Human Rights, and the European Pharmacopoeia Commission, which sets the quality standards for pharmaceutical products in Europe. The Council of Europe's work has resulted in standards, charters and conventions to facilitate cooperation between European countries and further integration.
The seat of the Council of Europe is in Strasbourg, France with English and French as its two official languages. The Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress also use German, Italian and Russian for some of their work.
History
In 1945, at the end of the second World War, Europe was marked by unprecedented devastation and human suffering. It faced new political challenges, in particular reconciliation among the peoples of Europe. This situation favoured the long held idea of European integration through the creation of common institutions.
In his famous speech at the University of Zurich on 19 September 1946, Sir Winston Churchill called for a United States of Europe and the creation of a Council of Europe. He had spoken of a Council of Europe as early as 1943 in a broadcast to the nation. The future structure of the Council of Europe was discussed at a specific congress of several hundred leading politicians, government representatives and civil society in The Hague, Netherlands in 1948. There were two schools of thought competing: 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 the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly under the Statute of the Council of Europe. This dual intergovernmental and inter-parliamentary structure was later copied for the European Communities, NATO and the OSCE.
The Council of Europe was founded on 5 May 1949 by the Treaty of London. The Treaty of London or the Statute of the Council of Europe was signed in London on that day by ten states: Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Many states followed, especially after the democratic transitions in central and eastern Europe during the early 1990s, and the Council of Europe now includes all European states except Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Aims and achievements
Article 1(a) of the Statute states that " The 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. " Therefore, membership is open to all European states which seek European integration, accept the principle of the rule of law and are able and willing to guarantee democracy, fundamental human rights and freedoms.
While the member states of the European Union transfer national legislative and executive powers to the European Commission and the European Parliament in specific areas under European Community law, Council of Europe member states maintain their sovereignty but commit themselves through conventions (i.e. public international law) 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, whereas secondary European Community law is set by the organs of the European Union. Both organisations function as concentric circles around the common foundations for European integration, 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. Being part of public international law, Council of Europe conventions could also be opened for signature to non-member states thus facilitating equal co-operation with countries outside Europe (see chapter below).
The Council of Europe's most famous achievement is the European Convention on Human Rights, which was adopted in 1950 following a report by the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly. The Convention created the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The Court supervises compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights and thus functions as the highest European court for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It is to this court that Europeans can bring cases if they believe that a member country has violated their fundamental rights.
The wide activities and achievements of the Council of Europe can be found in detail on its official website. In a nutshell, the Council of Europe works in the following areas:
- Protection of the rule of law and fostering legal co-operation through some 200 conventions and other treaties, including such leading instruments as the Convention on Cybercrime, the Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism, the Conventions against Corruption and Organised Crime, and the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine.
- CODEXTER, designed to co-ordinate counter-terrorism measures
- The European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ)
-
Protection of human rights, notably through:
- the European Convention on Human Rights
- the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture
- the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings
- the Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse
- social rights under the European Social Charter
- linguistic rights under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
- minority rights under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
- Media freedom under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Convention on Transfrontier Television
- Protection of democracy through parliamentary scrutiny and election monitoring by its Parliamentary Assembly as well as assistance in democratic reforms, in particular by the Venice Commission.
- Promotion of cultural co-operation and diversity under the Council of Europe's Cultural Convention of 1954 and several conventions on the protection of cultural heritage as well as through its Centre for Modern Languages in Graz, Austria and its North-South Centre in Lisbon, Portugal.
- Promotion of the right to education under Article 2 of the first Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights and several conventions on the recognition of university studies and diplomas (see also Bologna Process and Lisbon Recognition Convention).
- Promotion of fair sport through the Anti-Doping Convention and the Convention against Spectator Violence.
- Promotion of European youth exchanges and co-operation through European Youth Centres in Strasbourg and Budapest, Hungary.
- Promotion of the quality of medicines throughout Europe by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and its European Pharmacopoeia.
Institutions
The institutions of the Council of Europe are:
- The Secretary General, who is elected for a term of five years by the Parliamentary Assembly and heads the Secretariat of the Council of Europe. The current Secretary General is the former Prime Minister of Norway, Thorbjørn Jagland, who took office on 1 October 2009.
- The Committee of Ministers, comprising the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of all 47 member states who are represented by their Permanent Representatives and Ambassadors accredited to the Council of Europe. Committee of Ministers' presidencies are held in alphabetical order for six months following the English alphabet: Switzerland 11/2009-05/2010, Macedonia (alphabetically sorted under "T" as "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia") 05/2010-11/2010, Turkey 11/2010-05/2011, Ukraine 05/2011-11/2011 and the United Kingdom 11/2011 - 05/2012 etc.
-
The Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), which comprises national parliamentarians from all member states and elects its President for a year with the possibility of being re-elected for another year. In January 2010, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu from Turkey was elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly. National parliamentary delegations to the Assembly must reflect the political spectrum of their national parliament, i.e. comprise government and opposition parties. The Assembly appoints members as rapporteurs with the mand
Solihull Council - Council Services
Learn how to customise this site to meet your own accessibility needs
News - Akron City Council
Welcome to the official Website of Akron City Council. Akron City Council is made up of 13 members: 10 are ward representatives and three are elected at large.
Cleveland City Council > Home
Directory, committee information, calendar, ward map, FAQ, and publications.
Council - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A council is a type of committee that leads or governs. In British culture, a municipality is often referred to as a council. Council may refer to:
Mackay Regional Council- Contact council
Contact council Mackay Regional Council ... Online services. Use council's online services to enter customer requests, make payments, view information on development applications and more
The City of Edinburgh Council - Council
The City of Edinburgh Council aims to be a customer focused organisation, working with communities and partners to provide excellent services that best meet our customers needs and ...
Stockport Council - Council Job Vacancies
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council ... Are you interested in working for the Council? Why not come along to our drop in sessions and meet the recruitment team.
The Council - Choices for a Healthy Future
The Council is a leader in innovative prevention and treatment techniques for alcohol abuse, other drug use and addictions. The Council is dedicated to providing quality services ...
Council - Council on Education
Instant Registration. Already know what event you want to attend? Enter your event code.
Council | Definition of Council at Dictionary.com:
Copy & paste this link to your blog or website to reference this page