The Council of Europe

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The Council of Europe

• IR 2001 International Organisations in Europe
  Week 12

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CoE Questions

• Under what circumstances was the Council of
  Europe created?
• What were/are its aims and objectives?
• How does the Council of Europe work?
• What are its relations with other European
  organisations?
• What role has it played with EU enlargement?
• Is the Council of Europe an effective institution?

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The Council of Europe History

• Historical Context
• End of the Second World War
• Common Security
• Democracy building
• Cold War
• East vs. West
• Opposing Ideologies
• Global governance
• United Nations

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The Council of Europe History

• Winston Churchill (Zurich 1946)
• Hague Conference 1948
• An attempt, never previously made in history, to
  combine effective executive international action
  at the governmental level with democratic
  consultation, not democratic control (Boothby
  1952).
• Purpose
• Resolutions
• Divergences

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The Council of Europe History

• Founding States
• 1949 Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy,
  Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and
  the UK
• Enlargement
• 1949 Greece (suspended 1969-74) and Turkey
  (barred from PACE 1981-84)
• 1951 GDR, Iceland, Switzerland and Finland
• 1989 Finland and CEECs

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The CoE Aims and Objectives

• Democratic Peace Theory
• Pre-1989
• Democratic governance
• Standardise social and legal practices
• Promote a European identity
• Post-1989
• Human rights watchdog
• CEECs integration
• Epistemic community

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The CoE Role in Europe

• Early Problems
• Organisational overlap
• Policy implementation
• Indifference

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The CoE How does it work?

• Committee of Ministers
• 46 Seats
• Foreign Ministers or ambassadors
• Main policy-making body

• Parliamentary Assembly
• 315 seats
• From 46 national parliaments
• A deliberative body
• Human Rights watchdog

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The CoE How does it work?

• Committee of Ministers
• Secretariat International Civil Service
• Ministers meet once a year (Confidential)
• Discuss anything but national defence
• Deputies meet once a week
• Responsibilities

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The CoE How does it work?

• Parliamentary Assembly
• Parliamentary representation
• Political groups
• The Bureau
• The Standing Committee
• The Joint Committee
• Assembly Committees
• PACE Flash Presentation

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The CoE Other bodies

• European Court of Human Rights (1959)
• European Convention on Human Rights (1950)
• Takes on the cases of individuals against
  member-states.
• Ex. Zhdanok v. the Republic of Latvia
• Protocol 11 (1998)
• Composition

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The CoE Other bodies

• Commissioner for Human Rights
• Strasbourg 1997 (adopted 1999)
• Aims
• Human rights education
• Human rights commentator
• Human rights observance

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The CoE Other bodies

• Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the
  Council of Europe
• Basis Link between decentralisation and
  democracy
• Knowledge Sharing
• Advising body
• Observer body
• Works with EU regarding regional policy

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The CoE Treaties and Conventions

• Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
  Fundamental Freedoms European Convention on
  Human Rights
• Right to Life
• Prohibition of Torture
• Prohibition of Slavery or Forced Labour
• Right to Security
• Right to Fair Trial
• Etc

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The CoE Treaties and Conventions

• Framework Convention on the Protection on
  National Minorities
• Link between discrimination and insecurity
• Right to equality before the law
• Right to maintain and develop their own culture
• Promote mutual understanding
• Right to receive information in minority language
• Etc

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The CoE Other issues

• Legal Affairs
• Local Policy
• Democracy through Law
• Public Health
• Migration
• Education
• Sport

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The CoE Relations with EU

• CoE EU
• Co-operation formalised in 1997
• Regular meetings between EU presidents and CoE SG
  and President
• Links between the CoE Secretariat and EU
  Commission, spawning joint programmes in CEECs
• Russia
• Ukraine
• Albania
• Baltic States

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The CoE Relations with OSCE

• COE OSCE
• Combining the legal to the political
• Similar aims
• Extension of the Human rights regime
• Institutional links
• CoE has observer status in OSCE bodies
• Co-op on the ground with OSCE HCNM and Missions
• Baltic States
• Moldova
• Former Yugoslavia

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The CoE Relations with EU/OSCE

• Problems
• Inter-institutional overlaps
• Duplication
• Small state complaints
• From burden-sharing to encroachment
• Division of labour?
• OSCE
• EU

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The CoE EU enlargement

• European Commission
• Regular Reports
• CoE and OSCE seen as watchdogs
• The CoE as a veto player (Tsebelis)

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The CoE Relations with US/Canada

• United States
• Scepticism
• Major issue Death Penalty
• Major issue ECHR
• Canada
• Willing co-operation

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CoE Conclusion

• Under what circumstances was the Council of
  Europe created?
• What were/are its aims and objectives?
• How does the Council of Europe work?
• What are its relations with other European
  organisations?
• What role has it played with EU enlargement?
• Is the Council of Europe an effective institution?