Events
EU policy seminar: Ensuring rights for all in Europe: Challenges for the Council of Europe and the European Union November 3, 2009
Since the end of the Cold War, the Council of Europe and the European Union have contributed tremendously to the development and the consolidation of human rights, the rule of law and democracy in Europe. At the same time, they have both extended their membership and are confronted to new challenges on their respective agendas. Contemporary developments in cultural, economic, political, and social fields have indeed given rise to new rights, which challenge both organisations and their institutional capacities.
On 3 November, the Clingendael European Studies Programme organised, in cooperation with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a high-level policy seminar on the cooperation between the Council of Europe and the European Union. Sixty years after the creation of the Council of Europe, this seminar aimed at discussing views on the complementary interaction between the two entities and made some policy recommendations on the way forward. Participants in the seminar were senior officials from Council of Europe (and EU) member states and institutions as well as a number of academic experts.
The seminar was structured around three sessions. The first session, investigated ways to strengthen complementarity and cooperation between the Council of Europe and the European Union. In the overview paper, the case of the fight against racism and discrimination illustrated the debate and provided some orientation for a wider debate on human rights. Then, the second session discussed the roles of the Council of Europe and the EU, within the EU’s Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. In particular, the discussion looked into the strengthening of the rule of law in the third pillar, based on the Council of Europe’s experience. The last session looked at how EU’s external relations with countries like Russia and Turkey impacts upon the Council of Europe’s agenda.
