III. The Council of Europe


Political Developments

Armenia and Azerbaijan were admitted as members of the Council of Europe (CoE) in January 2001. The admission procedure in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina made good progress and a formal decision is to be expected in 2002. Developments in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were under observation. The Committee of Ministers stepped up the programme of cooperation to assist Yugoslavia to reach the required standards for membership, and approved the opening of a CoE office in Belgrade. No progress was made with regard of the application by Monaco because of constitutional difficulties. The Special Guest status of Belarus continued to be suspended at the end of the year due to the unsatisfactory internal situation.

The CoE paid special attention to the situation in Chechnya. A seminar on human rights and democracy, and a subsequent meeting of the Joint Working Group of the Russian Duma and the CoE Parliamentary Assembly with Chechnyan representatives, contributed to a certain relaxation. In Macedonia the CoE was engaged in projects to improve interethnic relations, for example training for judges and regional administrators. The Council of Europe participated in election monitoring in several states, and in the Yugoslav province ofKosovo organised and monitored the elections at the invitation of the OSCE. It was also actively involved in activities under the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe.

The Council of Europe reacted to the events of September 11 with a programme to combat terrorism, and declared its solidarity with the EU, OSCE and UN on the issue. The 109th Committee of Ministers issued a declaration on international action against terrorism with an emphasis on legal cooperation, preserving fundamental values, and strengthening democracy. Existing CoE activities and programmes have been adapted to provide support for inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogues at national level.

Relations with Other International Organisations

Collaboration with the European Union continued with a joint declaration on cooperation and partnership issued on April 3. There is a regular exchange of information between the CoE Secretariat and the European Commission on current activities and projects. The CoE has a permanent office in Brussels, while EU representatives attend CoE meetings and accompany CoE monitoring groups. The jointly organised and financed programmes of support for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the southern Caucasus have the purpose of consolidating the rule of law and democracy. In November a "quadripartite meeting" between the political and official heads of the CoE and EU was mainly concerned with methods of countering terrorism. The EU will also participate in the CoE Multidisciplinary Group on International Action against Terrorism.

Relations with the OSCE developed further under the Romanian OSCE Chairmanship. Observers from both organisations monitored the elections in Montenegro in April and Kosovo in November. The biannual "two-plus-two" and "three-plus-three" meetings of the leaderships of both organisations were means of exchanging information and views on current political themes like the various crisis centres in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe as well as cooperation on crisis management and the protection of human and minority rights. The main topic of the meeting in Vaduz in October was the efforts of both organisations to combat terrorism.

Contacts between the CoE and the United Nations take place on many levels due to the mutual participation in conferences and seminars as well as through cooperation in special projects or other activities. Human rights matters within the UN framework are discussed once a year in the CoE Committee of Ministers, and matters of common interest in a CoE-OSCE-UN trilateral meeting. The Council of Europe was represented at the fourth meeting of secretaries -general of regional organisations with the UN Secretary- General on cooperation on peacekeeping. The 56th UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on cooperation with the CoE, with particular stress on the assistance the Council of Europe had rendered towards the ratification of the statute of the International Criminal Court, its contributions to the Conference on Racism in Durban and the campaign against international terrorism, and its activities in Kosovo.

Monitoring

Once again, three full meetings of the Committee of Ministers in 2001 were devoted to monitoring the upholding of the commitments undertaken by member states under the European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols. Further meetings considered individual aspects like freedom of the media, the death sentence and politic al prisoners in certain states. The principal theme was the effectiveness of court procedures. Reports from the member states were submitted on the second major theme of non-discrimination, with the emphasis on combating intolerance and racism. The Austrian report elucidated the relevant legal structure and listed all the measures that Austria had already taken to this end. These included amongst others measures against racist activities in the internet, the establishment of a contact office in the Ministry for Home Affairs, and enhanced education in human rights in Austrian schools.

The previously monitored fields were: freedom of speech, opinion and information; democratic institutions; judicial systems; local democracy; the death sentence; and police and security services. Progress in implementing previous decisions in those areas was continuously assessed, and where necessary supplementary measures were specified. A new ad hoc monitoring arrangement was introduced for Armenia and Azerbaijan to coincide with the accession of these two countries, which were visited by a CoE working group in January and June. The Parliamentary Assembly continued to monitor the situations in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine, and also scrutinised the Kurdish situation in Turkey. A "post-monitoring dialogue" was carried on with Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Macedonia.

Assistance Programmes

In 2001 the CoE assistance programmes that were grouped under the title Activities for the Development and Consolidation of Democratic Stability (ADACS) were combined into a single programme with a budget of €9.7m. The recipients are primarily new member states and candidates. The areas covered are: the rule of law, local administration, human rights, social cohesion, education, culture, youth, sport, the environment and civil society. The activities mostly entail the transmission of expertise and training courses for civil servants, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, teachers and journalists. The budget also provided finances for the CoE information centres in Central and Eastern Europe as well as well as for the offices in Tirana, Belgrade, Pristina, Podgorica and Sarajevo/Mostar. An additional budget of €500,000 provided support for the new member states Armenia and Azerbaijan. The confidence-building and young democratic leadership programmes continued. Similar joint programmes with the EU costing €2m were carried out in the Russian Federation, Albania, Moldova and the northern Caucasus. A further €700,000 was provided for translations of important CoE texts into non-official national languages in member states.

The Council of Europe's Institutions

The Committee of Ministers - under the Chairmanship of Latvia - reviewed at its 108th session on 11 May, the means available to the CoE to contribute to the enhancement of democratic stability in the Balkans and Caucasus. Infringements on human rights and terrorist attacks in Chechnya were also discussed. The Secretary-General put forward an action plan to improve the freedom of the media in Ukraine. The ministers also adopted a statement on the rights of children as a contribution to the special session of the UN General Assembly on t he issue. The 109th session on 8 November, as elsewhere after 11 September, was dominated by the international campaign against terrorism. It was decided to set up a multidisciplinary expert group on international counter-terrorism methods. The Committee adopted the text of a European Convention against Computer Crime that was subsequently signed on 23 November by 26 member states as well as Canada, Japan, South Africa and the United States. Also adopted was another additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine to regulate the transplant of human organs and tissues.

The Parliamentary Assembly (now consisting of 301 members and 301 substitutes) meets four times a year (Austria has 6 members and 6 substitutes). In January the Federal Parliament of Yugoslavia was awarded Special Guest status in the Assembly, and in November a report was submitted on its progress towards meeting the necessary standards for full membership. An application for membership was received from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The delegates from the Russian Duma, whose voting rights had been suspended the previous year on account of the Chechnya crisis, returned to full participation in the Assembly. A joint working group of Assembly and Duma members that was formed for further consideration of the Chechnya question concluded that there was no alternative to peace negotiations without conditions, and decided to set up a broadlybased consultative council under the aegis of the group. Other fundamental themes debated were the abolition of the death penalty, especially in the observer countries Japan and the United States, and the means by which democracies can meet the challenge of terrorism. One urgent issue is strengthening the European Court of Human Rights to allow it to cope with the increasing flood of individual complaints. In April the Assembly elected 16 new judges of the Court, including Elisabeth Steiner of Austria.

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe, founded in 1957 as a standing conference, was reconstituted in 1994 as an advisory organ of the Council of Europe. It fulfils an important role in monitoring local and regional democracy and assessing applications for CoE membership. It has current projects under the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe as well as an expanded network of agencies for strengthening local democracy in the region. At its eighth Forum for South-Eastern Europe in Istanbul in November new partnership were formed between political and economic actors, and further impulses were provided by a Round Table of mayors of the capital cities of the region. The Congress has 301 members and 301 substitutes and meets annually in Strasbourg. It has two chambers - one for the local authorities and one for the regions. The mayor of Innsbruck, Herwig van Staa, is chairman of the Chamber of Local Authorities.

Austria and the Council of Europe

For two years Walter Schwimmer has been Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, the third Austrian to hold the position after Lujo Toncic-Sorinj and Franz Karasek. In January 2002 the Austrian Peter Schieder was unanimously elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly. Austria meets 1.99 per cent of the CoE's regular budget and in 2001 contributed a total of €4.16m for all purposes. The CoE Centre for Modern Languages, located in Graz, is now supported by 30 member countries. Austria's total contributions to it in 2001 amounted to €360,090, in addition to around €365,000 contributed from 1999 to 2001 specifically for the removal to new premises.

In 2001 three CoE agreements entered into force for Austria: the European Convention on Persons Participating in Proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights (1996); the Convention on Illicit Sea Transport for the Implementation of Article 17 of the UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1995): and the European Charter on Regional and Minority Languages (1992).

Austria signed three new agreements in 2001 under the auspices of the Council of Europe: the Additional Protocol to the European Framework Convention on Cross-Border Cooperation between Local Authorities (1995); the Additional Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Persons in the Automatic Processing of Personal Data; and the Convention on Computer Crime.

Four Austrian local authorities received Council of Europe awards in 2001 for outstanding achievements in promoting the idea of European unity. The city of St. Pφlten was given the highest award, the Europe Prize. Dornbirn was awarded the Flag of Honour, and Judenburg and Lannach the European Diploma.