The Importance of the Council of Europe (Democracy, Political Reforms & Civil Society) (Essay‪)‬

The Council of Europe has two important characteristics. Other international organisations may share one or other of these characteristics to some extent, but none of these others share all of them. The first characteristic is that the Council of Europe can truly claim to be pan-European. It is generally agreed that Europe is a continent which stretches from Iceland to Turkey and from Portugal to Russia. Only one of these countries (Portugal) is a member of the European Union, but all of them and all the countries between them are members of the Council of Europe. It was not always like this. At the time of its birth in London in 1949, the Council of Europe covered only 10 countries, and they were all in Western Europe. During the next few years, other countries joined the club, but membership was still restricted to Western Europe. Then after the changes symbolised by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, there was an explosion of membership with the inclusion of all the newly democratic countries of Central Europe, Eastern Europe and South East Europe. Now every country in Europe is a member with the sole exception of Belarus. All the others, all 47 of them, are members of the Council of Europe.