Право / Реферат: Council of Europe

Реферат: Council of Europe

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)