Adoption of a revised statute of the Council of Europe

Doc. 8480

16 July 1999

Adoption of a revised statute of the Council of
Europe

Recommendation 1212 (1993)

Reply from the Committee of Ministers

adopted at the 676^th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (1-2 July 1999)

In accordance with the undertaking given in its interim reply, as adopted in September 1993, the Committee of Ministers wishes to return to the questions raised by Recommendation 1212 (1993) of the Parliamentary Assembly on the adoption of a revised statute of the Council of Europe, and to provide a final reply to the said Recommendation.

The observation made by the Assembly regarding re-examination of the Council of Europe's role (in the context of the major changes that emerged in Europe following the fall of the Berlin Wall) is shared by the governments of the member States of the Organisation, as evidenced in the references to the Council of Europe's new responsibilities included in the Final Declarations of both the Vienna Summit and the Strasbourg Summit. At the same time, the corollary drawn from this, of the need to adapt the Organisation's structures to its new responsibilities, was the subject-matter of joint reflection between the Parliamentary Assembly and the Committee of Ministers.

On the eve of the Vienna Summit, as the Council of Europe was preparing to grow from 26 to 32 member States, before continuing its enlargement to the 41 European States now assembled, the Parliamentary Assembly had taken position in favour of the major political act that would be entailed by adoption of a revised statute of the Council of Europe. Without excluding this possibility, the Committee of Ministers preferred, in the following years, to take a flexible approach to the statutory improvements that proved successively necessary. Thus, a few days after the adoption of Recommendation 1212, three statutory resolutions were adopted, on the creation of observer status with the Council of Europe, on changes to the voting

procedures within the Committee of Ministers so as to reduce the cases in which unanimity was required, and on the functioning of partial agreements (including the creation of enlarged agreements); in the same way, a statutory resolution creating the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities was adopted on 17 January 1994.

The need to reform the structures of the Council of Europe was reasserted by the Second Summit of the member States of the Organisation (Strasbourg, 10-11 October 1997). It was the subject of Chapter V of the Action Plan adopted by the Heads of State and Government, under which the Committee of Ministers was instructed "to carry out the structural reforms needed to adapt the Organisation to its new tasks and its enlarged membership and to improve its decision-making process".

With a view to following this instruction, the Committee of Ministers set up a "Committee of Wise Persons", composed of leading European figures, under the chairmanship of Mario Soares. The Parliamentary Assembly was closely involved in the reflection on adapting the Council of Europe's structures carried out by this Committee, since its President sat on the Committee of Wise Persons ex officio, and its Clerk exercised the functions of co-secretary, together with the Deputy Secretary General. The Committee of Wise Persons submitted its final report, entitled "Building Greater Europe without Dividing Lines" to the 103rd Session of the Committee of Ministers (3-4 November 1998). This report was forwarded to the Parliamentary Assembly.

The Committee of Ministers shares the view, expressed in the course of the Committee of Wise Persons' work, that the difficulty of the task of adopting a revised statute of the Council of Europe (which would require ratification by the 41 member States to enter into force) should lead to a preference for more flexible approaches. Indeed, this kind of approach has been followed since the Organisation's beginnings, since it has been possible to complement the 1949 Statute, thanks to the adoption of statutory resolutions such as those mentioned above, without the need to carry out a formal revision of that text.

This observation removes none of the pertinence, mentioned by the Parliamentary Assembly and by the Committee of Wise Persons, of an ambitious and global reform of the Organisation's structures. The proposals made by the Committee of Wise Persons have thus been examined in detail by the Committee of Ministers, within the ad hoc Working Group (GT-SAGES) chaired by the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom. GT-SAGES reported on its work at the 104th Session of the Committee of Ministers (Budapest, 6-7 May 1999); this report was also sent to the Assembly.

Thus, reform of the Council of Europe's structures is today a process that is well underway. It will be continued over the months, even years, to come, with the support of the new Secretary General. The Committee of Ministers will keep the Parliamentary Assembly regularly informed of any developments in this area, through statutory reports or any other appropriate means.