Council of Europe

The Council of Europe is an intergovernmental organization that works to uphold peace, democracy, and human rights throughout Europe. Representatives from ten European nations—Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom—created the council on May 5, 1949, in London with their signing of the Statute of the Council of Europe, also known as the Treaty of Rome.

The Council of Europe was a product of post–World War II Europe. The widespread destruction brought about by the war convinced European countries that they needed to collaborate in the future to avoid another such conflict. To this end, in a speech at Switzerland's University of Zurich in 1946, British statesman Winston Churchill implored the nations of Europe to forgive the offenses of the war and come together peacefully to form a Council of Europe.

Forty-seven member states made up the Council of Europe in the 2010s. The organization continues to promote human rights throughout Europe by opposing racism and the death penalty; defending freedom of expression, gender equality, and children's rights; observing elections to guarantee fairness; and ensuring that member states are providing their citizens with basic human rights.

Despite widespread confusion of the two organizations, the Council of Europe is not a branch of the European Union, the political and economic partnership of European countries. However, the council collaborates closely with the European Union. The Council of Europe is also distinct from the European Council, the assembly of the European Union's council of ministers.

Background

Calls to form an international coalition of European countries arose in the aftermath of World War II. The devastation produced by that war's multiple totalitarian actors had so shaken Europeans that, with the restoration of peace in 1945, they quickly began forming pro-European political groups to lobby for a transnational organization designed specifically to prevent dictatorships from ever rising up again in Europe. These groups also wanted the organization to guarantee the freedom of democracy and basic human rights throughout the continent.

One advocate for such an organization was British politician Winston Churchill. In a speech at the University of Zurich in Switzerland in 1946, Churchill urged the countries of Europe to forgive one another for their transgressions during World War II and assemble to form a kind of "United States of Europe." He claimed that the best way to start this process was to found a Council of Europe.

Churchill's plea inspired the governments of several European countries to send delegates to the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity, which held the Hague Congress in The Hague, Netherlands, in May of 1948. The congress ultimately resolved to call a European assembly that would draft a charter on human rights and establish a court of justice to enforce European adherence to the charter.

Convening this assembly took about one year due mostly to various nations' disagreements over membership. The governments of France and Belgium submitted their proposals for the assembly to their partners of Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The proposals suggested that the assembly tasked with creating an intergovernmental European council be composed of delegates chosen by member states' parliaments. These representatives would then pass proposed resolutions by majority votes.

Britain opposed the idea of the assembly's delegates being approved only by national parliaments. The British preferred a ministerial system, in which government heads appointed ministers to serve in the assembly alongside representatives approved by parliaments. Discussions on this matter continued into January of 1949. Finally, the five original partner nations at the time agreed that the assembly would be populated with government ministers, as the United Kingdom preferred. In this way, each government would enjoy a direct voice in negotiations.

France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom then invited Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Norway, and Sweden to attend the conference on the establishment of the Council of Europe, which was held in London in early May of 1949. The conference agreed to a resolution by May 5. That day, representatives from all ten countries signed the Statute of the Council of Europe, or the Treaty of Rome, which officially created the Council of Europe. The authority of the statute, however, was not activated until the following August, when the parliaments of a majority of member states had approved it.

Overview

The ten original member states of the Council of Europe had chosen the city of Strasbourg in the Alsace region of eastern France as the council's headquarters. This location was symbolically significant. Located near the French-German border, Strasbourg had been ravaged by war between France and Germany for centuries. The choice of Strasbourg as the Council of Europe's headquarters was meant to signify that European relations would heal in a place where they had been destroyed many times.

To accomplish its goals of promoting democracy, peace, and human rights throughout Europe, the Council of Europe employed three principle subgroups: the Committee of Ministers, the council's legislative body; the Consultative Assembly, later known as the Parliamentary Assembly, which elected the council's leaders and recommended policies to the Committee of Ministers; and the Secretariat, an administrative body responsible for coordinating plans for the committee and assembly.

The members of the Council of Europe viewed their organization as a venue for the open discussion of ideas for the improvement of Europe. They felt free to express themselves because they were not elected by the citizens of their respective countries and so were not accountable to public opinion.

More European nations joined the Council of Europe throughout the rest of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century until the organization had forty-seven members in the late 2000s. The council achieved a wide range of human rights goals during that period. These included prohibiting the death penalty in member states; inspecting prisons to ensure prisoners were being treated fairly; confirming that citizens in all member states were being granted their rights to health care, housing, and freedom of movement throughout Europe; supporting minority rights; and opposing racial and gender discrimination across the continent.

The Council of Europe also occasionally observed regional elections in member states to guarantee the freedom and fairness of democracy. Additionally, the council supported various youth foundations throughout Europe to educate young people in democracy and human rights.

Bibliography

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"Council of Europe." Duke Law, law.duke.edu/lib/researchguides/councileurope/. Accessed 10 Nov. 2016.

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"Council of Europe Adopts Resolution on Sport for All." Olympic.org, 12 Oct. 2016, www.olympic.org/news/council-of-europe-adopts-resolution-on-sport-for-all. Accessed 10 Nov. 2016.

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Wassenberg, Birte, and Marie- Thérèse Bitsch. History of the Council of Europe. Council of Europe Publishing, 2013.

Wilkinson, Michael. "What Is the EU, Why Was It Created and When Was It Formed?" The Telegraph, 22 June 2016, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/20/what-is-the-eu-why-was-it-created-and-when-was-it-formed1/. Accessed 10 Nov. 2016.