The review of the role of the North-South Centre started with the preparation of an independent external evaluation report, which was submitted in August 2012. The main recommendation of this evaluation was that the Centre should refocus its strategy. It also proposed to constitute a group to reflect on how this best could be done.

Following the withdrawal of a few member States, the Committee of Ministers decided to set up an Ad hoc Working Party on the future of the North-South Centre (GT-CNS). The proposals contained in the report of this Working Party were endorsed by the Committee of Ministers two years ago, in May 2013.

The aim is to make the Centre an efficient tool for the Council of Europe's Neighbourhood Policy, and for this purpose to:

• streamline and refocus its activities;
• concentrate its thematic focus on promoting intercultural dialogue as a tool for developing democratic societies;
• target in particular youth and women; and
• strengthen links and develop synergies with other parts of the Council of Europe.

In July last year, the Secretary General presented a first, interim review of the North South Centre’s achievements in this regard.

This interim review acknowledges that concrete steps have been taken to:

• ensure stronger links with Headquarters in Strasbourg by improving
• co-ordination with relevant sectors of the Organisation to raise awareness of Centre’s activities and to promote Council of Europe values and standards in NSC activities;
• adapt the activities to budgetary realities;
• develop and implement activities for key target groups in the fields of global education, women and youth; and
• attract new member States.

Indeed, on the issue of membership, although Italy and Slovenia left the Centre in 2013, Croatia acceded to the Centre in February 2015. Furthermore, Tunisia’s request for membership was accepted by the Committee of Ministers in October 2014, and we are now awaiting finalisation of this country’s internal ratification procedures. Bosnia and Herzegovina has also expressed its intention to accede to the Centre during its Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers which begins in May 2015.

I am convinced that the accession of Tunisia, in addition to the memberships of the the Holy See, Morocco and Cape Verde, demonstrates the added value of the Centre as a platform where quadrilogue actors from beyond the Council of Europe can exchange on an equal footing with their European partners.

The efforts made by the North-South Centre have contributed to creating a positive dynamic for the Centre, including for the purpose of raising additional financial support through voluntary contributions from member States and private donors in order to compensate for the loss of resources due to the departure of member States;

The final stage in the evaluation of the decisions by the Committee of Ministers two years ago is underway. It is carried out by an external evaluator under the patronage of the Directorate of Internal Oversight (DIO) and should be finalised in the coming weeks.

This evaluation will assess the degree to which the North-South Centre has implemented the recommendations of the working party of the Committee of Ministers, as follows:

1. To what extent has the work of the Centre become more focused with regard to geography, thematic coverage and target groups?
2. To what extent is the Centre acting in closer coordination with relevant Council of Europe bodies and entities and thereby creating more synergies than before?
3. To what extent has the Centre further developed its role as an interface between the Council of Europe and the neighbouring countries in the South?

The evaluation report should be discussed in the Committee of Ministers’ Rapporteur Group on External Relations (GR-EXT) in June and, finally, by the Ministers’ Deputies before the summer break.

In conclusion, as pointed out so eloquently by President Anne Brasseur, when the North South Centre was created 25 years ago the Council of Europe did not have a Neighbourhood Policy. Now this Policy is a reality and we need to give the Centre a meaningful role within it. Thanks to the possibility for countries outside Europe to become members, its location in Lisbon and its quadripartite configuration, the Centre offers a platform where the Council of Europe and its neighbouring countries of the South can discuss and work on an equal footing. This is an important added value of the Centre which should be fully exploited within the Neighbourhood Policy, notably in its multilateral dimension.