The North-South Centre, officially named the European Centre for Global Interdependence and Solidarity, is an autonomous agency - called a partial agreement - of the Council of Europe, the oldest political organisation of European states.
It currently has 20 member states.
Management system: a four-way partnership
The North-South Centre’s status in the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental organisation, is unique: it is run on the basis of a quadrilogue, a term coined to mean the combination of four partners from political institutions and civil society - governments, parliaments, local and regional authorities and NGOs. This system helps build bridges between players with different approaches, viewpoints and priorities, generating constructive synergies.
All the partners in this four-way process take part in running the North-South Centre as members of its decision-making bodies. The Executive Council, which meets twice a year in spring and autumn, is made up of eight representatives of the member states, six NGO representatives, four local and regional authority representatives, four parliamentarians, three leading personalities from the South, the representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and the European Commission representative.
The current President of the Executive Council is Mrs Deborah Bergamini.
The Executive Council
The Executive Council adopts the North-South Centre’s budget and assesses the conduct of its activities. It also looks at applications from non-European countries wishing to join the centre, which they can then do with the agreement of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
Every two years the Executive Council elects the Bureau, which is made up of the Chair and six members.
The Bureau
The Bureau supervises the preparation and implementation of the North-South Centre’s programmes. It also prepares the meetings of the Executive Council in close liaison with the Centre’s secretariat, headed by the Executive Director Denis Huber.
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