Member States

46 member countries:

The Council of Europe was set up on 5 May 1949 by 10 countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom), joined by Greece and Republic of Türkiye in August 1949. It now has 46 member states : Iceland and Germany (1950), Austria (1956), Cyprus (1961), Switzerland (1963), Malta (1965), Portugal (1976), Spain (1977), Liechtenstein (1978), San Marino (1988), Finland (1989), Hungary (1990), Poland (1991), Bulgaria (1992), Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania (1993), Andorra (1994), Latvia, Albania, Moldova, Ukraine, "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia"(1995), Croatia (1996), Georgia (1999), Armenia and Azerbaijan (2001), Bosnia and Herzegovina (2002), Serbia (2003), Monaco (2004), Montenegro (2007).

The Council of Europe is not the European Union. The two organisations are quite distinct, but the 27 European Union states are all members of the Council of Europe.
 

1 applicant country: Belarus

Belarus ' special guest status has been suspended due to its lack of respect for human rights and democratic principles.
 

Observers

5 observer countries: the Holy See, the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico.