Permanent Representation of The Netherlands to the Council of Europe

Lecture by Mr. M. van Bosch

By Katharina Helmdach

The permanent representatives work for the Committee of Ministers at the Council of Europe. The Dutch representation consists of 4 diplomats and their supporting staff. The representatives meet once a week at ambassador level and their deliberations are supplemented by meetings of rapporteur groups and working groups which consider certain issues in depth before decisions are taken.

The representatives receive instructions of the government or are coordinated by the ministry of foreign affairs e.g. when a decision has to be made about the accessibility of health services/ facilities, a draft will be send via Internet to Den Haag, where the government or the ministry of foreign affairs will give further instructions.

If the Committee of Ministers cannot agree on a certain topic, e.g. because some countries want to delay a decision in order to save money, the chair person can write a letter to the Parliamentary Assembly stating how many countries voted in favour of the notion and how many voted against it.

The Council of Europe is facing new challenges today, in particular a comparatively low budget to the institutions of European Union and the risk of duplication by the European Union.

To solve these questions, amongst others, the Member states met last summer in Warsaw. It is highly attractive for Council of Europe to work together with European institutes because of their financial resources. One aim is therefore to prevent the European Union setting up institutions with the same tasks as the Council of Europe. Joint programmes are preferable in this respect. Another result of the Warshaw summit the decision that all countries have to contribute to the promotion of the core values of the Council of Europe, i.e., Human Rights, democracy and rule of law.

Even though all Member States of European Union are also Members of the Council of Europe, they do not act as a block against the other states.

The main challenge that remains, therefore, is gaining further financial resources in the future.

Editor's note: This issue has recently appeared in the news with Russia taking over the Council's presidency for the first time, and being reluctant to fund all the Presidency expenses.

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