Council of Europe - Documents and Archives

Focus

Focus on the Council of Europe Audiovisual Heritage
Created in 2005 by UNESCO, the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage celebrated on 27 October, gives us the opportunity to raise awareness about our own audiovisual heritage. Back in 1998 the Council of Europe decided to safeguard its audiovisual heritage by starting with the collection of audio recordings. In 2008 it was the turn of the 16 mm films to be first restored then digitised (see an example [fr]). Finally 2011 saw the beginning of the digitisation of the video collection; by the end of the year more than 1000 hours will have been digitised thanks to an agreement with the European Parliament. In order to organise and manage these assets, Council of Europe is considering the acquisition of a Digital Asset Management tool. Once in place, this tool will provide easy access to users, researchers, journalists, etc.

Are you looking for a Council of Europe web page which is no longer online? Retrieve the information easily thanks to Web Archives.

News

Archives on the spotlight on 9 June 2012. Whether stored in physical or in digital form, archives provide both meaning and knowledge, so they should be regarded, not as delicate and outdated, but as a basis for what we are building today and will be inventing tomorrow. (More...)

ArchivalWare, the new repository providing access to the digital collections of the Council of Europe Archives, continues to grow. Many documents from the Committee of Ministers as well as the Parliamentary Assembly are now available.

Resource Description and Access (RDA) is the new standard which replace the 2nd edition of the Anglo-America Cataloguing Rules (AACR2). The Council of Europe is monitoring the elaboration of regional or national implementation rules of RDA and will evaluate their suitability for the Organisation.

Welcome to the website Documents and Archives

You will find in this site:

- information about the documents and archives of the Council of Europe, how they are organised and how to access them

- information on finding aids and other professional tools

- information on our partners

- a selection of external information resources on the Internet

- a presentation of the entity in charge of these activities

>>> A glimpse at our heritage <<<

Many personalities from all walks of life have helped in the construction of a Greater Europe. The Council of Europe Archives, as the custodian of this rich heritage aims to preserve, protect and promote this priceless legacy for posterity.

1949

5 May: creation of the Council of Europe

1949

5 May: Robert Schuman signed the Statute officialising the creation of the Council of Europe

1949

Winston Churchill addresses crowd in Place Kléber in Strasbourg

1949

Winston Churchill

1949

Winston Churchill attends the first session of the Assembly

1950

4 November: Signature of the European Convention on Human Rights in Roma

1950

4 November: Robert Schuman signed the European Convention on Human Rights

1951

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1951

Alcide De Gasperi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy, one of the founding fathers of the Council of Europe

1969

13 May: Willy Brandt, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany

1972

Sedar Senghor, President of Senegal and poet

1973

Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel, and Lujo Tončić-Sorinj, Secretary General of the Council of Europe

1977

Inauguration of the Palais de l'Europe by Valery Giscard d'Estaing, President of France

1979

11 October: Moshe Dayan, Prime Minister of Israel

1985

Karl Ahrens, Marcelino Oreja Aguirre, Ronald Reagan and Nicolaes Diamantopoulos

1986

28 January: Hosni Mubarak, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, during his plea for peace

1988

26 January: Juan Carlos I, King of Spain

1988

8 October: Pope John Paul II

1989

François Mitterrand, President of France

1989

17 April: Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

1989

10May: Lech Walesa, leader of Solidarity in Poland, awarded with the 1989 European Human Rights Prize

1989

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union

1990

18 September: Robert Badinter, Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice of France

1990

10 May: Václav Havel, President of the Czech and Slovak federal Republic

1992

Queen Elizabeth II, Head of State of the United Kingdom

1993

8-9 October: 1st Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe

1993

8-9 October: Jacques Chirac, President of France

1994

Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel

1994

Mary Robinson, President of the Republic of Ireland

1994

Yasser Arafat, President of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation

1997

13-17 May: 2nd Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe

1997

13-17 May: Boris Yeltsin, Helmut Kohl and Tony Blair

2000

Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations

2002

Shimon Peres, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of the Foreign Affairs of Israel

2002

Ion Iliescu, President of Romania

2002

Simone Veil, President of the Foundation for the memory of the Shoa

2005

16-17 May: 3rd Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe

2005

16 November: José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission

2006

V. Poutine, President of the Russian Federation and M. de Boer-Buquicchio, Deputy SG of the Council of Europe

2007

Abdullah Gül, President of Turkey

2008

J.-P. Costa, President of the European Court of Human Rights and Mikheil Saakachvili, President of Georgia

2008

Angela Merkel, Federal Chancellor of Germany

2008

Yulia Tymoshenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine

2008

Viktor Yushchneko, President of Ukraine