COUNCIL OF EUROPE

INTRODUCTION:

The day after the Second World War, as all of Europe was devastated by five years of conflict, the states of Europe, encouraged by the United States, were determined to restore the continent, to make it better, and above all, to prevent another tragedy from occurring.

In this context, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill mentioned the solution in his speech on September 19, 1946, in Zurich.

“A remedy that would, as if by miracle, completely transform the situation within a few years and make all of Europe as free and happy as Switzerland is today. We must build a kind of United States of Europe.”

• Convinced that the consolidation of peace based on justice and international cooperation is of vital interest for the preservation of human society and civilization;

• Unwaveringly attached to the spiritual and moral values that are the common heritage of their peoples and that are the origin of the principles of individual freedom, political freedom, and the rule of law, upon which all true democracy is founded;

• Convinced that in order to safeguard and gradually triumph over this ideal and to promote social and economic progress, a closer union among European countries in a tighter association is necessary,

The governments of the Kingdom of Belgium, Denmark, the French Republic, the Irish Republic, the Italian Republic, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Norway, the Kingdom of Sweden, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have decided to establish an intergovernmental organization called the "Council of Europe."

On May 5, 1949, at St. James's Palace in London, the ten countries gathered to sign the treaty establishing the statute of the Council of Europe.

Seated in Strasbourg, in accordance with Article 11 of the statute and having French and English as its official languages as per Article 12, the Council of Europe aims to achieve a closer union among its members in order to safeguard and promote the ideals and principles that are their common heritage and to foster their economic and social progress.

This aim is pursued through the Council's organs by examining matters of common interest, concluding agreements, and adapting common action in the economic, social, cultural, scientific, legal, and administrative fields, as well as through the safeguarding and development of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

During its first 40 years, the Council of Europe remained a West European institution that established a significant number of norms and cooperation agreements. However, since 1989, the Council has become the first political structure to welcome the cooperation of Central and Eastern European countries. It currently has 41 member states.

One is therefore entitled to question its missions, organization, and the nature of its relations with the European Union.

Bringing together 41 democratic states of Europe, the Council of Europe is an intergovernmental organization that oversees the harmonization of member states’ policies by assisting them in implementing their political, legislative, and constitutional reforms and seeking solutions to major societal problems. Since its creation in 1949, it has undergone changes in its organization due to the issues it has had to address. In the exercise of its functions, the Council collaborates closely with the European Union, complementing its actions in order to establish democratic and economic stability across Europe.

I. MISSIONS OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

The Council of Europe is entrusted with a central mission: to strengthen democracy, human rights, and the rule of law within the space constituted by its member states, as well as to protect the common cultural heritage.

1.1/ DEMOCRACY

Since its inception, the Council of Europe has firmly committed to upholding democracy as a paramount choice. It even conditioned the membership of states on their acceptance of the principles of democracy and the rule of law, which anticipated the return of several countries that had experienced authoritarian regimes to the European democratic family.

The institution of the CPLRE, whose statutory resolution, included in Annex IV, was adapted by the Council on January 14, 1994, embodies democracy itself and a good faith that one of the solid foundations of a democratic society is the existence of effective local and regional democracy. It is also important to highlight the Council of Europe’s cooperation programs, ADACS (Activities for the Development and Consolidation of Democratic Stability), which are adapted annually based on proposals from the concerned governments within the budget adopted by the Committee of Ministers.

2.1/ HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS:
The Council of Europe aims to harmonize the policies of its member states, considering that civil and political rights and social and economic rights are interdependent. It has established a wide variety of programs, authorities, and mechanisms within the framework of international law. Notably, the European Convention on Human Rights was signed in Rome on November 4, 1950, and entered into force on September 3, 1953. This convention aims to protect human rights and the fundamental freedoms of individuals.

The Council has instituted a unique legal procedure worldwide that allows individuals to file complaints against a state if they believe they are victims of a violation of this convention.

Over its 52 years, the Council of Europe has developed more than 170 conventions and treaties, among which are the aforementioned convention, the convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms concerning the abolition of the death penalty (listed in Annex I), the convention against torture, and the European Social Charter, which aims to ensure:

• The right to exercise any profession in any EU country
• The right to a fair salary
• The right of workers to dignity
• The right to freedom of association
• The right to social protection in the host country
• The right to vocational training
• Gender equality
• The right to health and safety at work
• The protection of the elderly
• The right to individual social integration, personal autonomy, and participation in the community life of people with disabilities
• The right to protection against poverty and social exclusion
• The right to decent housing
• Strengthening the rights of children and adolescents to social, legal, and economic protection

Regarding the fundamental freedoms of individuals, the 1950 Convention on Human Rights also addressed these issues. The Council’s activity programs include efforts on all aspects of citizens' lives, and the Council has also become a center where responses to problems of intolerance, migrant integration, threats from technologies to privacy, terrorism, drug trafficking, and criminal activities are developed, etc.

3.1/ EDUCATION AND PROTECTION OF HERITAGE:

The Council of Europe is also dedicated to promoting the cultural heritage of Europe in its diversity. In this area, it aims to raise awareness and enhance the identity that constitutes the cultural mosaic of the continent and to seek responses to the challenges facing European society. The program for evaluating cultural policies promotes the sharing of experiences, learns from the successes and failures of various measures taken at the national or regional level, and identifies similar problems requiring nearby solutions.

In the field of education, the Council of Europe has adopted regulations to be followed by member states aimed at imparting democratic values to the youth and preparing them to live in a multilingual and multicultural Europe.

The works concerning education, living languages, vocational training, and pedagogical research have enabled Europeans to integrate into any country on the continent without difficulty, thereby leading to the construction of a Europe without borders.

Among these multiple works of the Council in the field of education and culture, it is important to cite as examples the European Thesaurus of Education developed jointly by the Council and the European Commission, as well as the conclusions of May 6, 1996, on the synergy between the recognition of academic and professional diplomas in the community and the European Cultural Convention.

Thanks to its extensive network of NGOs, which contribute significantly to its work and play an essential role in the process of strengthening democracy, human rights, and fundamental freedoms, as well as in education and the preservation of cultural heritage, the Council of Europe remains very close to public opinion and forms of social change.

It is clear, therefore, that the role of the Council of Europe is very important as it tries to generalize the recommendations it makes to all European countries. It is necessary to understand its different organs, their responsibilities, and how they function.

II. ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE:

Given the diversity of its missions and the issues it is called upon to address, and in order to effectively carry out its work, the Council of Europe comprises:

• A decision-making body: THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS

• A deliberative body: THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

• An advisory body: THE CONGRESS OF LOCAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORITIES (CPLRE)

These bodies are assisted by a SECRETARIAT GENERAL.

The organs meet on a regular basis. The Paris Communiqué assigned the Council a specific frequency of meetings: “three times a year and whenever necessary.” The limitation of sessions to two per year was established by the Single European Act, but several exceptions to the biannual meeting principle have been motivated by the seriousness of the political issues to be addressed. This new schedule allows each presidency to exercise its responsibilities once a year within the framework of the Council.

1.2/ COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS:

According to Chapter IV of the Statute of the Council of Europe, an excerpt of which is included in Annex II, the Committee of Ministers is the decision-making body of the Council of Europe. It directly represents the governments of the member states. It consists of the foreign ministers of the different member states. A minister may be represented by a deputy from their government or a senior official. The presidency of the Committee of Ministers changes every six months with each new session, following the alphabetical order of member states in English. The Committee meets twice a year at the ministerial level, once in April or May and once (see the meeting calendar in Annex III) in November. The daily work of the Committee is carried out by the Delegates of the Ministers. Each Minister designates a Delegate, who is most often also the Permanent Representative of the member state. The Delegates of the Ministers generally meet in plenary committee two to three times a month. Their decisions carry the same weight as those of the Committee of Ministers. The conduct of meetings of the Ministers and Delegates is governed by the Statute of the Council of Europe and the internal regulations of the Committee and the Delegates. The Delegates are assisted by a Bureau, Rapporteurs, and groups of Rapporteurs as well as ad hoc groups.

The Committee of Ministers performs a threefold role:

• First, it is the emanation of the governments where national approaches to the problems faced by European societies are expressed on an equal footing;
• Secondly, it is collectively the place where European responses to these challenges are formulated;
• Finally, it is the guardian, along with the Parliamentary Assembly, of the values that underpin the existence of the Council of Europe and, as such, it is entrusted with the mission of monitoring compliance with the commitments made by member states.

The work and activities of the Committee of Ministers cover:

• Political dialogue;
• Relations with the Parliamentary Assembly;
• Relations with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CPLRE);
• The admission of new member states;
• Monitoring compliance with the commitments made by member states;
• Implementation of cooperation and assistance programs for Central and Eastern European countries;
• Monitoring the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and their proper execution by member states;
• Concluding conventions and agreements;
• Adopting recommendations to member states;
• Adopting the budget;
• Adopting and monitoring the intergovernmental program of activities;
• A control role in the application of the European Convention on Human Rights;
• Contributing to conferences of specialized ministers.

2.2/ THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY:

The Parliamentary Assembly, formerly called the "Consultative Assembly," is the deliberative body of the Council of Europe. It discusses issues within its competence as defined in CHAPTER V of the statute dated May 5, 1949, of which an excerpt is included in ANNEX II.

It comprises 286 representatives and 286 substitutes designated by the national parliaments of the member states. Members are entitled to the number of seats determined by Article 263. The composition of each national delegation reflects that of its originating parliament.

The Assembly meets in plenary session four times a year, and its debates on various social issues and recommendations to the Committee of Ministers have led to numerous achievements by the Council of Europe. It has established the status of "SPECIAL GUEST," allowing it to host representatives from the parliaments of non-member states in Central and Eastern Europe, thus preparing for the accession of these states.

3.2/ THE CONGRESS OF LOCAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORITIES OF EUROPE (CPLRE)

The CPLRE is the body representing local and regional authorities. It includes 286 representatives and 286 substitutes, all holding an elective mandate within a local or regional authority or a responsible position before a local or regional body. Each member state is entitled to a number of seats equal to that in the Parliamentary Assembly (Article 263 of the Statute: ANNEX III).

The CPLRE is an advisory body with the following essential objectives:

• To ensure the participation of local and regional authorities in achieving the ideal of European Union.
• To submit proposals to the Committee of Ministers to promote local and regional autonomy.
• To promote cooperation among local and regional authorities.

It carries out its responsibilities with the assistance of:

• Two chambers, one representing local authorities (the Chamber of Local Authorities)
• The other representing regional authorities (the Chamber of Regions).

Its composition and responsibilities are governed by the articles of the statutory resolution of July 14, 1994, found in Annex IV and by the charter in Annex V.

It is consulted by the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly on issues affecting the competencies and interests of the local and regional authorities it represents.

4.2/ SECRETARIAT GENERAL:

The Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly, and the CPLRE are assisted by a secretariat general composed of a Secretary General elected for five years by the Parliamentary Assembly, a Deputy Secretary General, and 1,500 officials appointed by the Secretary General in accordance with Article 36C of the Statute, which also deals with the powers of the latter and is included in Annex II.

Certainly, the changes it has undergone in its organization over the past 52 years have enabled it to fulfill its tasks effectively. It has been joined by numerous important institutions such as the European Union.

It is therefore important to assess whether the relationships that exist between these two organizations are based on complementarity and cooperation.

III - COMPLEMENTARITY OF THE COUNCIL WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION

The Council of Europe is the first European organization established after World War II. It has been joined by numerous other institutions, including the European Union, with which the Council establishes relationships of complementarity and cooperation.

The resolution adopted by the Committee of Ministers during its 8th session in May 1951, included in Annex VI and addressing the Council of Europe's relations with other organizations, stipulates that the Committee of Ministers may conclude agreements with any intergovernmental organization regarding activities that fall within the Council's competence.

Furthermore, the Council of Europe is mentioned in Articles 120 and 128 of the Maastricht Treaty and is referenced in most of the European Union's programs as a privileged partner. However, in the past, opportunities for cooperation have not been fully exploited, and collaboration has often been limited to informal or sporadic relations.

Officially, the relations between the European Union and the Council of Europe are based on Article 230 of the Treaty of Rome and the arrangement of June 16, 1987, which was adapted in November 1996 to strengthen cooperation. Thus, the Commission began participating in 1997 in the work of various working groups of the Council, to which it had not previously participated. Additionally, it continued to be associated with the major political events that marked the activity of this organization, particularly the second summit of heads of state or government held in Strasbourg on October 10 and 11, 1997, to which President Santer and Mr. Van den Broek attended during the 100th and 101st sessions of the Committee of Ministers. On May 6 and November 6, they were also present at specialized ministerial conferences (education, justice, and family affairs) and at the annual quadripartite meetings held on April 28 in Luxembourg.

Meetings between the Commission and the Council of Europe have also continued in various fields (culture, mass communication, sports, gender equality, youth, politics, social issues, migration, bioethics, legal cooperation, human rights, and education).

Moreover, the Council of Europe has deepened its cooperation with the European Union, which materialized in 1997:

• Through the signing of a "common program aimed at legal reform and the promotion of independent media" in Moldova.
• By continuing joint programs in favor of Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States, as well as multilateral joint programs concerning national minorities in Central European countries and the fight against corruption and organized crime in transitional states.
• Additionally, through financial contributions to the operation of the Ombudsman for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In education, youth, and culture, cooperation between the two organizations made significant progress during this period based on pragmatic contacts and targeted projects aimed at developing partnerships and exploiting complementarities.

On March 7, 1996, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe met in Brussels with Mr. Oreja, a member of the European Commission responsible for culture, among other areas. He proposed forming a small team from both sides to identify areas of cooperation and outline future actions in the field of cultural cooperation between the two organizations.

Following this proposal, a joint working group was created to address cooperation in the fields of culture, cultural heritage, and media.

The first meeting of this working group took place on October 18, 1996, in Brussels, where the following points were considered:

• Possible accession of the European Community to the Convention on Cinematographic Co-production.
• Cooperation between MEDIA II and EURIMAGES, modification of the "Television without Frontiers" directive, modification of the "Transfrontier Television" convention.
• Programs in the fields of culture and cultural heritage.

The Secretary General also met with Ms. E. Cresson, a member of the European Commission responsible for education and youth. It was agreed to create an inter-service contact group based on the model proposed by Mr. Oreja. This group was to regularly evaluate the progress of cooperation between the two organizations in the fields of education and youth (April 16, 1996).

Similarly, the Committee on Cultural Heritage, the Education Committee, the Committee on Higher Education and Research, and the Culture Committee of the CDCC (Council of Cultural Cooperation) proposed concrete measures for cooperation with the European Union during their plenary meetings held between March and May 1996.

The ad hoc working group, established by the Delegates of the Ministers to assist the presidency and the General Secretariat in establishing the Council of Europe's position for strengthening cooperation with the European Union and revising the 1987 arrangement concluded between the Council and the European Community, met on April 29, 1996, to examine cooperation in education and culture. Following this meeting, the Delegates of the Ministers left their 566th meeting with numerous decisions concerning cooperation in the aforementioned areas. In education, the Education Committee places the utmost importance on coordinating its activities with those of the EU. Thus, at the meeting of the Education Committee of the Council of Cultural Cooperation, the EU representative informed the Committee of the progress of activities within their organization and the process of opening the "Socrates," "Leonardo," and "Youth for Europe" programs to Central and Eastern European countries as well as to Cyprus and Malta. The two organizations also jointly organized the final conference of the project "Living Languages and European Citizenship," which took place in April 1997.

The Council and the EU continued to cooperate in developing a common European framework of reference for language learning, teaching, and assessment, the development of educational research, vocational training, and the protection of cultural heritage.

The cooperation and coordination of efforts undertaken by the two organizations have resulted in the development of dozens of programs and activities, among which it is important to highlight:

• In the field of learning: the "Europe in School" program, which aims to better inform about Europe through education.
• In higher education: the third edition of the "Student Guide" from the Council of Europe, published in 1997, covered around thirty European states in addition to the ORTELIUS consortium, which publishes and prints electronic information on the higher education systems of the EU.
• In the field of language assessment: the work conducted jointly by both organizations, which facilitated the integration of foreign-born populations in Estonia and Latvia, specifically aimed at defining language learning objectives "Threshold Level" for Latvian and Estonian for non-speakers of those languages.
• In educational research: the comparison made by the Council of Europe and the EU between the thesaurus and database EUDISED, used by the Council to index summaries of research work in education, and EURYDICE, which is the Commission's information network in education and is used by the Union to index data on national educational policy systems.
• In vocational training: it is also important to note that the Council of Europe has been taken by the EU as an example concerning the assessment of the feasibility of a European supplement to diplomas, which contains a description of studies and promotes transparency of vocational diplomas.
• In the field of cultural heritage conservation, it is worth noting that the Council has engaged in consultations organized by the EU in preparing several programs in the field of cultural heritage, including RAPHAEL and LEONARDO.

The MASTRO courses of the first program aim at specializing in the conservation of architectural heritage for master craftsmen. The MINOTE courses are aimed at professionals in the management of archaeological heritage. The LEONARDO program focuses on vocational training for construction managers of historical buildings.

Since the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, the strengthening of cooperation between the Council of Europe and the EU has been remarkable. The first generation of multiannual programs in the fields of culture, education, vocational training, youth, and media is now coming to an end. Some second-generation programs, more ambitious in their scope and budget, have been adopted or are on the verge of being adopted. Opportunities are also opening up for deepening cooperation in areas such as combating racism and xenophobia, European platforms, assistance to Central and Eastern European countries, and cultural cooperation.

CONCLUSION:

The diversity of its missions, the principles it advocates, in addition to its highly suitable organization, make the Council of Europe the preferred host structure for the new European democracies.

It collaborates with all European organizations that believe in a real and close union of the continent. Its complementarity with the European Union has greatly contributed to the unification of the thoughts of all the states in this region of the world, which was once torn and divided.

Given these satisfactory results in Europe, shouldn't we therefore be entitled to question the possibilities of potential cooperation between the Council of Europe and intergovernmental organizations in Africa, particularly with the OAU (Organization of African Unity)?