[1] The COUNCIL OF EUROPE is the continent’s oldest political organisation, founded in 1949. It has its headquarters in Strasbourg, in North-Eastern France. The Council was set up to:
• defend human rights, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law,
• develop continent-wide agreements to standardise member countries’ social and legal practices,
• promote awareness of a European identity based on shared values and cutting across different cultures.
Since 1989, its main job has become:
• acting as a political anchor and human rights watchdog for Europe’s post-communist democracies,
• assisting the countries of central and eastern Europe in carrying out and consolidating political, legal and constitutional reform in parallel with economic reform,
• providing know-how in areas such as human rights, local democracy, education, culture and the environment. Today, the Organisation continues to grow while at the same time increasing its monitoring to ensure that all its members respect the obligations and commitments they entered into when they joined. The main component parts of the Council of Europe are:
• the Committee of Ministers, composed of Foreign ministers or their Strasbourg-based deputies (ambassadors/permanent representatives), which is the Organisation’s decision-making body.
• the Parliamentary Assembly, grouping members (representatives and substitutes) from the national parliaments.
• the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, composed of a Chamber of Local Authorities and a Chamber of Regions.
• the 1800-strong secretariat. Since November 1990, the accession of countries of Central and Eastern Europe has given the Council of Europe a genuine pan-European dimension, so that it is now the organisation that represents Greater Europe.