THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

Lecture by Mr Frank Steketee

by Nik Alatortsev

'What is the Council of Europe?' 'How, if at all, is it different from the Council of the EU?' 'How does it work?' 'What's it like to work there?'

These questions, and many others besides, were answered by the lecture of Mr Frank Steketee during our visit to the Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg on Monday afternoon. Mr Steketee outlined the history of the institution, its development and functions,

as well as current and future challenges.

The Council of Europe is not widely known, particularly in Western Europe, and if people have heard of it, then mainly for its work in the field of Human Rights. It was the body that prepared and adopted the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), setting up the European Court of Human Rights in the process. However, as Mr Steketee pointed out, there are many other aspects of the Council's work which merit attention, especially since the Human Rights treaties amount to only about 10% of the 'output' of the Council's work over the last 50 years.

The Council was created in 1949 with the Treaty of London, though Strasbourg was chosen as its seat for symbolic and historical reasons - the city had been at the forefront of the confrontation between France and Germany for the preceding 80 years, including during the two World Wars. The British origins of the Council show in the way it functions - it is essentially a body that operates by consensus based on the principle of state sovereignty, the approach for

European integration favoured by Britain in the late 1940s (and, arguably, to the present day).

Conventions, treaties or recommendations are adopted by a Committee of Ministers of the 46 member states, which include the EU 25, Russia, Turkey, the Caucasian states and others besides (the much wider membership is one factor distinguishing the CoE from the EU), after a period of research into the best practice and discussion within the Parliamentary Assembly, which however only serves a consultative function. Any treaty or convention adopted by the Ministers still has to be ratified by the individual member states - absent are the notions of Direct Effect and Supremacy so familiar to anyone with even the basic knowledge of EC Law. Some treaties have suffered the unfortunate fate of not reaching the threshold; and only about 10 treaties form the 'core' to which any applicant state must subscribe.

The number of such potential applicant states is in fact very limited - with the exception of some of the micro-states, Belarus is currently

the only European state which is not a member of the Council. Following the end of

the Cold War, the Council played a key role in welcoming the formerly communist states in Central and Eastern Europe into the 'European family'. As Mr Steketee observed, this was not only for practical reasons (the Council having by far the most expertise in the fields of Human Rights, etc), but also for pragmatic ones - the EEC, as it was then, was still primarily concerned with economic matters.

The changing nature of the EU today thus poses a significant challenge to the way in which the Council functions, and arguably to its very existence. These topical issues were discussed in 2005 at the CoE/EU Summit in Warsaw, which merely stated that the two bodies should agree on co-operation; the Juncker report of 2006 provided a number of ways in which this can be achieved, but whether it will be followed remains to be seen.

The Prime Minister of Luxembourg recommended that the EU should reform its constitutional framework to enable it to join the CoE as a member, and that the CoE should be the primary port of call when matters arising in its particularly strong fields of competence - Human Rights, Democracy-building and the Rule of Law - are dealt with.

The growing realisation that the Council of Europe may not be able to function most effectively if it works on all aspects of its very wide mandate is reflected in the recent creation of the office of European Commissioner for Human Rights. Originally very vaguely defined, this position has grown in importance since 2000, and now forms yet another aspect of Human Rights protection for all of Europe's citizens.

The Council of Europe also provides a striking illustration that European integration

does not necessarily involve a huge price tag. The Council's administration and programmes are funded through contributions (mainly deriving from budgets of the Member States' Foreign Ministries), which amount to somewhere in the region of 0.30€/year per head of population, compared to approx €230/year per head of population of the EU.

For this comparatively tiny amount, the Council plays a significant, if not necessarily omni-present, part in everyday lives of Europe's citizens. As already mentioned, it has a large variety of programmes and conventions relating to things other than Human Rights - health, education and culture feature prominently on the Council's agenda. The Committee of the Regions also functions to improve cross-border relations between different communities, promoting peace, security and stability.

Though some of the Council's programmes and functions have, of course, been taken over to a large extent by the EU, many others remain, and through its much wider membership, the Council of Europe is able to spread its good work on a much larger geographical scope.

In short, though Human Rights remain the primary focus of the Council's work, it has many other functions besides, and we are grateful for Mr Steketee for taking his time to explain this fascinating European institution to us. Thanks are also due to the Visitors' Centre of the Council, for their time in giving us a very interesting guided tour of the Council's building.