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Recommendation 1231 (1994)
Follow-up to the Council of Europe Vienna Summit
1. The Assembly takes note of the Vienna Declaration, adopted by the heads of state and government of the member states of the Council of Europe at their summit meeting on 9 October 1993.
2. It notes with satisfaction that this declaration, and the decisions appended to it, in some respects reflect the Assembly's views as expressed in its various recommendations addressed to the summit, especially concerning the political role of the Council of Europe.
3. It welcomes, in particular, the decision to establish a single court of human rights to supersede the present control mechanism of the European Convention on Human Rights.
4. The Assembly considers that the adequate protection of the fundamental rights and freedoms of persons belonging to national minorities is one of the most important assignments of the Council of Europe in the 1990s.
5. It therefore deeply regrets that the summit did not follow the Assembly's recommendation on an additional protocol on the rights of national minorities to the European Convention on Human Rights.
6. The Assembly welcomes the decision of the Committee of Ministers, as part of its plan of action to combat racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance, to establish a committee composed of experts with moral authority and recognised expertise in this area. It further welcomes the decision to invite the Assembly to be represented on the committee.
7. The Assembly wishes to be closely associated with the Committee of Ministers's follow-up to the summit.
8. Therefore, the Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
8.1. take account of the Assembly's Opinion No. 178 (1994) on the 11th Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights establishing a single court, and open this protocol for signature at its May 1994 ministerial session;
8.2. revise its decision on the rights of minorities: the Assembly was, and is, of the opinion that the rights of minorities should be guaranteed through an additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights as proposed by the Assembly;
8.3. ensure, if it maintains its decision, that at least the principles formulated in the framework of the CSCE and laid down in the Copenhagen document be enshrined in the framework convention and in the additional protocol on cultural rights, and, this being the case, submit to the Assembly for opinion the interim report on a framework convention on the rights of national minorities, and on an additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights containing cultural rights in particular for persons belonging to national minorities, the said report to be presented to the Committee of Ministers by 15 April 1994 at the latest;
8.4. submit the report on the plan of action to combat racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance, to be examined by the Committee of Ministers in May 1994, to the Assembly for opinion;
8.5. speed up its work on the adaptation of the Organisation's Statute and closely associate the Assembly with it;
8.6. examine, in this context, the possibility of the accession of the European Union to the Statute of the Council of Europe.