Council of Europe

The summit was held in Vienna on 8 and 9 October 1993 and confirmed and extended the policy of opening up and enlargement. It also identified three priorities, starting with the reforme of the European Convention on Human Rights machinery to make it more expeditious and effective. This is the subject of the Convention's Protocol no 11. The Vienna summit also laid great emphasis on the protection of national minorities, which was to lead to the adoption of a framework convention less than two years later, and combating intolerance.

Thus with its new-found role of offering a home to all the countries of Europe willing to opt for democracy, thereby establishing a continent-wide democratic security area, the Council of Europe has used the years since Vienna to develop and refine the undertakings which any applicant country for membership must be willing to accept.

The Council of Europe in an enlarged Europe

The arrival of the Russian Federation in February 1996 meant that the institution had finally become fully pan-European. Henceforth, more than 700 million citizens would be concerned in building the new Europe. The Council's activities are now having to adapt to an environment that is not only wider and more diverse but also more complex and less stable. This is changing the nature of its co-operation programmes.

Support and monitoring activities are being strengthened. More attention is being paid to what happens on the ground, for example via confidence measures or campaigns to combat intolerance. New priorities are emerging such as migration, corruption, the right to be granted nationality, social exclusion and minorities. The dual machinery for protecting human rights will be replaced on 1 Novembre 1998 by a single Court, housed in the Human Rights Building designed by the British architect Richard Rogers and inaugurated in June 1995.

At the same time several other European or North Atlantic institutions have been increasing their co-operation with the countries of central and eastern Europe, offering the prospect of closer integration. The work under the auspices of the intergovernmental conference of the European Union and NATO summit held in Madrid, show that European co-operation will continue to develop.

As it approaches its fiftieth anniversary, the Council of Europe, with its 41 members, will also be required to clarify how it sees its future role as a focus for democratic security and the proponent of a European model of society. A second summit was held for this purpose on 10 and 11 October 1997. The Strasbourg Summit, held at the Council of Europe headquarters and hosted by the French Presidency, gave the 40 Heads of State and Government an opportunity to assess the positive contribution which the Council had made to stability in Europe by admitting new countries, running programmes to help them make the transition to democracy and monitoring all its members' compliance with their obligations. The Summit adopted a Final Declaration and an Action Plan, fixing the Organisation's priorities in the years ahead, and gave reform of its structures the green light.

How the Council of Europe works

The Council of Europe comprises:

· a decision making body: the Committee of Ministers

· a deliberative body: the Parliamentary Assembly

· a voice for local democracy: the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe

Each of these three bodies, whose function is briefly described below, has its own Internet site.

In exceptional circumstances, political impetus for the organisation may come from a summit of its member countries' heads of state and government. This occurred with the Vienna summit in 1993 and the Strasbourg Summit in 1997.

The various bodies are assisted by an International Secretariat of some 1500 officials from all the member countries. They are headed by a Secretary General whose is elected by the Parliamentary Assembly for a five year term.

· The Committee of Ministers

The Committee of Ministers is the decision-making body of the Council of Europe. It directly represents the governments of the member States.

It is composed of the Minister for foreign affairs of each member State. The Minister may be represented by an alternate who is either a member of government or a senior diplomat.

The chairmanship of the Committee changes with each six-month session, in the English alphabetical order of the member States.

The Ministers' Deputies meet in plenary two to three times a month. Their decisions have the same authority as the Committee of Ministers.

The conduct of meetings of the Ministers and their Deputies is governed by the Statute and rules of procedure.

The Deputies are assisted by a Bureau, Rapporteur Groups and ad hoc groups.

The Committee of Ministers performs a triple role:

- firstly as the emanation of the governments which enables them to express on equal terms their national approaches to the problems confronting Europe's societies;

- secondly as the collective forum where European responses to these challenges are worked out;

- thirdly as guardian, alongside the Parliamentary Assembly, of the values for which the Council of Europe exists; as such, it is vested with a monitoring function in respect of the commitments accepted by the member States.

The work and activities of the Committee of Ministers include :

* political dialogue

* interacting with the Parliamentary Assembly

* interacting with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE)

* follow-up to respect of commitments by member States

* admission of new member States

* concluding conventions and agreements

* adopting recommendations to member States

* adopting the budget

* adopting and monitoring the Intergovernmental Programme of Activities

* implementing cooperation and assistance programmes for central and eastern Europe

* supervising the execution of judgments of the European Convention on Human Rights by the member States

* contributing to Conferences of Specialised Ministers

The Committee of Ministers is made up of the ministers for foreign affairs of the 41 member states. It meets twice a year in ordinary sessions and may hold special or informal meetings. Its Chair changes every six months according to the member countries' alphabetical order.

The Ministers' Deputies meet at least once a month. They draw up the Council of Europe's activities programme and adopt its budget, which today amounts to some 1 300 million French francs. It also decides what follow-up should be given to proposals of the Parliamentary Assembly, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and the specialist ministerial conferences that the Council of Europe regularly organises.

· The Parliamentary Assembly

The Parliamentary Assembly is the parliamentary organ of the Council of Europe consisting of a number of individual representatives from each member State, with a President elected each year from among them for a maximum period of three sessions. The present President is Lord Russell-Johnston, a British Liberal Democrat (LDR) member of the House of Lords.

Whilst in the Committee of Ministers each member state has one vote, in the Parliamentary Assembly the number of representatives and consequently of votes is determined by the size of the country. The biggest number is eighteen, the smallest two. As there are an equal number of representatives and substitutes, the total number of members of the Assembly is therefore 582, plus 15 special guests and 15 Observers.

They are appointed to the Parliamentary Assembly in a manner which is left to be decided by each member state as long as they are elected within their national or federal Parliament, or appointed from amongst the members of that parliament. The balance of political parties within each national delegation must ensure a fair representation of the political parties or groups in their national parliaments.

Political groups

In order to develop a non-national European outlook, the formation of political groups in the Parliamentary Assembly has been promoted and from 1964 onwards they were granted certain rights within the Rules of Procedure. At present the Assembly counts five political groups: the Socialist Group (SOC); the Group of the European People's Party (EPP/CD); the European Democratic Group (EDG); the Liberal, Democratic and Reformers Group (LDR) and the Group of the Unified European Left (UEL). Political Groups have to commit themselves to respect the promotion of the values of the Council of Europe, notably political pluralism, human rights and the rule of law. To form a Group, at least twenty members of at least six different delegations have to decide to do so. Members of the Assembly are entirely free to choose the Group they wish to join. Before deciding they can attend meetings of one or several groups and should not be bound by their national party label but choose the group which best suits their political affinities. The President of the Assembly and the Leaders of the Groups form the Ad hoc Committee of Chairpersons of Political Groups.

The Bureau

The President, eighteen Vice-Presidents and the Chairpersons of the political groups or their representatives make up the Bureau of the Assembly. The big countries have a permanent seat in the Bureau; the smaller countries take turns. The duties of the Bureau are manifold: preparation of the Assembly's agenda, reference of documents to committees, arrangement of day-to-day business, relations with other international bodies, authorisations for meetings by Assembly committees, etc.

The Standing Committee

The Standing Committee consists of the Bureau, the Chairpersons of national delegations and the Chairpersons of the general committees. It is generally convened at least twice a year and its major task is to act on behalf of the Assembly when the latter is not in session. Each year one of the Standing Committee meetings, together with a number of other committees, takes place normally in one of the member states.

The Joint Committee

The Joint Committee is the forum set up to co-ordinate the activities of, and maintain good relations between, the Committee of Ministers and the Assembly.

It is composed of a representative of each member Government and a corresponding number of representatives of the Assembly (the members of the Bureau and one representative of each parliamentary delegation of member States not represented on the Bureau).

The Secretariat of the Assembly

The secretariat of the Assembly is headed by Mr Bruno Haller, Secretary General of the Assembly who is elected by it for a period of five years.

Its staff is divided into the Private Office of the President, the Secretariat of the Bureau and the Joint Committee, the Table Office and Inter-parliamentary Relations, the Administration and Finance Department and the Political and Legal Affairs Department including a number of operational Divisions to cover the work of the committees.

The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly is made up of 286 representatives and the same number of substitutes from the parliaments of the member states. Each delegation's composition reflects that of its parliament of origin.

The Parliamentary Assembly hold four plenary sessions a year. Its debates on a wide range of social issues and its recommendations to the Committee of Ministers have been at the root of many of the Council of Europe's achievements.

The Parliamentary Assembly has instituted a special guest status, which has enabled it to play host to representatives of the parliaments of non-member states in central and eastern Europe, paving the way to these countries' eventual accession.

The Assembly plays a key role in the accession process for new members and in monitoring compliance with undertakings entered into.

· The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe, like the Parliamentary Assembly, has 286 representatives and 286 substitutes. It is composed of two chambers, one representing local authorities and the other regions. Its function is to strengthen democratic institutions at the local level, and in particular to assist the new democracies.