Council of Europe - Founding, Aims, Institutions, Symbols, Membership

A loose association now including most of the states of Europe, established in 1949. Membership was originally limited to Western Europe (including Scandinavia), but since the collapse of communism (1991) it has been extended to Central and Eastern Europe, including Russia. The Council's institutions include a Committee of Ministers and a representative at the parliamentary assembly, whose role is essentially advisory. The Council has furthered European co-operation through a number of international conventions, covering subjects ranging from education and cultural exchanges to transport regulations and the promotion of democratic local government. Its most important achievement has been the signature of the European Convention on Human Rights (drawn up in 1950 as the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms), whose application is supervised and enforced by the European Commission on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights, both based in Strasbourg. The Convention on Human Rights, partly drafted by British lawyers, limits the sovereignty of member states by enabling individual citizens to appeal to the Commission and the Court on matters of human rights. It had 46 members in 2006. Several other nations have observer status.

The Council of Europe (French: Conseil de l'Europe /kɔ̃sɛj də løʁɔp/, German: Europarat /ɔy.ˈʁoː.paˌʁaːt/) is an international organization of 46 member states in the European region (with Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, Georgia and Cyprus also extending into Southwest Asia and Russia into North Asia).

The Council of Europe is not to be confused with the Council of the European Union or the European Council, as it is a separate organisation and not part of the European Union.

Founding

The Council of Europe was founded following a speech given by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich on 19 September 1946 (text of speech) calling for a "United States of Europe", similar to the United States of America, in the wake of the events of World War II.

Aims

Article 1(a) of the Statute states:

The Council concentrates on the following areas:

Protection of democracy and the rule of law Protection of human rights, notably: Social rights, with the European Social Charter Linguistic rights, with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages Media freedom, with the European Convention on Human Rights Promotion of Europe's cultural identity and diversity, with the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities Addressing problems facing European society including discrimination, xenophobia, environmental degradation, AIDS, drugs and organised crime Encouraging democratic stability via reform.

Institutions

The institutions of the Council of Europe are:

The Secretariat and the Secretary-General The Committee of Ministers The Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) The Congress of the Council of Europe (Congress) The European Court of Human Rights The Commissioner for Human Rights The European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines The Pompidou Group - Cooperation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Drugs

There's also the European Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the Venice Commission.

Symbols

The Council of Europe is responsible for the notable European flag with 12 golden stars (upward pointing) arranged in a circle on a blue background since 1955, and the anthem based on the Ode to Joy in the final movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth symphony since 1972. See European Symbols.)

To avoid confusion with the European Union, which uses the same flag, the Council often uses a modified version with a stylised lower-case 'e' in the centre of the stars which is referred to as the 'Council of Europe Logo' .

Membership

Today, there are 46 member states, including nearly every European state. Upon foundation on May 5, 1949 there were ten members:

 Belgium  Denmark  France  Ireland  Italy  Luxembourg  Netherlands  Norway  Sweden  United Kingdom

Members with later admission dates (sorted by date of admission):

 Greece (9 August 1949)  Turkey (9 August 1949)  Iceland (9 March 1950)  Germany Federal Republic of Germany (13 July 1950)  Austria (16 April 1956)  Cyprus (24 May 1961)  Switzerland (6 May 1963)  Malta (29 April 1965)  Portugal (22 September 1976)  Spain (24 November 1977)  Liechtenstein (23 November 1978)  San Marino (16 November 1988)  Finland (5 May 1989)  Hungary (6 November 1990)  Poland (26 November 1991)  Bulgaria (7 May 1992)  Estonia (14 May 1993)  Lithuania (14 May 1993)  Slovenia (14 May 1993)  Czech Republic (30 June 1993)  Slovakia (30 June 1993)  Romania (7 October 1993)  Andorra (10 October 1994)  Latvia (10 February 1995)  Albania (13 July 1995)  Moldova (13 July 1995)  Republic of Macedonia (9 November 1995)  Ukraine (9 November 1995)  Russia (28 February 1996)  Croatia (6 November 1996)  Georgia (27 April 1999)  Armenia (25 January 2001)  Azerbaijan (25 January 2001)  Bosnia and Herzegovina (24 April 2002)  Serbia (3 April 2003)  Monaco (5 October 2004)

The Parliament of  Belarus held special guest status with the Parliamentary Assembly from September 1992 to January 1997, but this has been suspended as a consequence of the November 1996 constitutional referendum and parliament by-elections which the CoE found to be undemocratic, as well as limits on democratic freedoms such as freedom of expression (cf.

Some non-European states also have observer status at Council of Europe institutions:

 Japan and the  United States have observer status at the Committee of Ministers.