Council of Europe 3
Council of Europe 3 : The Council (which should not be confused with either the Council of the European Union or the European Council) was formed in 1949 as Western Europe's first post-war political organization. Its Statute was signed as the Treaty of London by 10 States. Its offices were established in Strasbourg. Its declared objective was to achieve "a greater unity between its members for the purpose of safeguarding and realizing the ideals and principles which are their common and heritage and facilitating their economic and social progress". These objectives were to be secured through "discussions of questions of common concern and by agreements and common action in economic, social, scientific, legal and administrative matters and in the maintenance and further realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms". Its membership grew until, by the 1980s, it incorporated all the non-Communist States of Europe. The Council consists of two bodies: a Committee of Ministers and an Assembly. With each State having one vote and a veto, the Committee of Ministers is essentially an intergovernmental conference of foreign ministers meeting twice yearly. Since 1952, the practice of deputies (usually diplomats) representing the ministers has been normal for all but the most symbolic meetings. In relaying decisions to the Member States, the Committee is allowed to make recommendations only. States are not obliged to accept decisions of the Council of Europe. Similarly, the Assembly, renamed the Parliamentary Assembly in 1974, is essentially a discussion chamber, with hardly any substantive powers. Ever since its first session in 1949, the majority of the delegates, who are appointed by their national parliaments, have been strong supporters of European integration. The fact that it has shared a common home in Strasbourg with the European Parliament has helped this commitment. However, the Assembly can only forward recommendations to the Committee of Ministers, which can, and often does, ignore or reject them at will. The Council of Europe has produced over 120 Conventions and agreements, most of which have been accepted by almost all the Member States. Its greatest achievement, perhaps, was to secure agreement on a European Convention on Human Rights in 1950, with a concomitant European Commission of Human Rights and a European Court of Human Rights, both of which operate under the aegis of the Council. Much of the Council of Europe's success has been in the less politically contentious cultural field. It sponsored, for example, the European Cultural Convention in 1954 and a European Social Charter in 1961. In 1960 it was handed the social and cultural responsibilities that the Western European Union had been granted by the Treaty of Brussels 1948. In the 1950s it also sought to achieve some form of policy coordination in agriculture, civil aviation and transport. However, by itself the Council could not advance European integration much beyond such symbolic actions as seating the Assembly delegates in alphabetical order rather than by nationality. The United Kingdom and the Scandinavian States were firmly opposed to it becoming anything more than an intergovernmental deliberative body. After the early 1950s it was overtaken by the developments that led to the establishment of the European Communities (EC). While its major historical significance was that it was the first European organization of a political nature, the later importance of the Council of Europe was twofold. It was the European organization with the broadest membership, albeit limited to democracies, a claim that was later challenged by the formation of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in Helsinki, 1975. Also, because of its broad membership, it remained important as a forum where a wide range of ideas and views could be expressed, and as a central clearing-house for cooperation and coordination, receiving and discussing annual reports from a wide range of European and other international organizations and agencies, including the EC. The ending of the Cold War offered the Council an opportunity to expand its membership, and in the early 1990s most of the Central and Eastern European countries and the western republics of the former USSR (for example, the Russian Federation) either joined the Council or at least applied for membership. See: European Communities; European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
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