“I have been working at the Council of Europe since 2002. I arrived at the Court in 2002 and since then I have been working here as a lawyer in one of the Turkish divisions. I am always happy to go to work in the morning. There has not been a single day when I have said “Oh no, I have to go to work!” That may be due to the atmosphere in the Court and the working environment. It is a real pleasure to be with my colleagues. I have met people who have enriched my life through their knowledge, their culture and in particular their differences. There is a lot to be learnt from things that are different. There are two things in my everyday work that give me particular satisfaction: one is to contribute at my modest level to improving human rights protection in European countries and especially in Turkey. And secondly, I feel satisfied for the applicants because I have the impression that justice has been done.”

“I’ve been working at the Council for 10 years now. I started working in the Directorate of Legal Affairs and now since one year I’m working in the Pompidou Group in partial agreement to combat drug abuse and drug trafficking. My main work is that I am a CMM Assistant; I’m dealing with the budgets of the Pompidou Group: the ordinary budget and the voluntary contributions. I’m also the contact person for the member states of the group for the specially nominated representatives, organising their plenary meetings and ministerial conferences. I think working for the Council of Europe made me more tolerant towards others. Especially tolerant towards those who are different than myself. I really mean it. What attracted me the most is the international aspect of the Council of Europe - that I could speak all the languages that I speak here and to have a better view of Europe. Even though I was born in Russia, living several years abroad, it made me lose somehow my national identity, so I feel more European than ever, so this is the best place to be.”

“I have been working at the Council of Europe since September 2002. I was the first Azerbaijani citizen to take up work at the Council. I work in the field of joint programmes with the European Union. We offer solutions to operational departments when they have queries or specific problems. That aspect of my work is very interesting and very rewarding. What fascinates me is the exploration of contractual aspects and the exploration of the contractual practice of the European Union. It is intellectually very stimulating and very rewarding too when you manage to offer solutions to operational departments. Another satisfaction I constantly get from my work is when I manage to help colleagues – that is something that is very important for me. I like to help other people. I have had the opportunity to work with a large number of brilliant people who are totally committed to their work. The Council has given me the opportunity to develop a particular aspect of my personality and to become an expert in my field. So the Council has made a major contribution to what I now am”.

“I started working at the Council of Europe in April 2012. I’m the first person from Iceland to work at the Pharmacopeia. I get to form webinars, we write guidelines. I’ve been personally involved in writing a couple of guidelines and I’m working on a few others. I really love my job, and the pharmacopeia provides me the necessary background or framework. It makes my job fairly easy, I only have to make scientific decisions. It’s a challenge but it’s still good to have fresh perspectives. Every day you come to work. There are a few things that make me happy at work. I think that the first thing is the colleagues that I have; there is always something that the people are bringing. They’re always trying to introduce their culture - this lays a good foundation to come in to work. There’s always something nice happening, you know, and I really enjoy that. When I see a drug in the store that I have evaluated, it often feels good.”

“I started working at the Council of Europe in 2002 so I’m here already for more than 10 years. I consider myself linked to four countries: Moldova, Ukraine, Belorussia, and Russia. I work on the questions of political advice itself and confidence building measures. Confidence building measures: it’s building the bridges of confidence between people after conflicts. I’m particularly proud of our organisation when I travel around Europe and I meet people who know what we do and how we do it and who are grateful to the Council of Europe for the work it does. The most motivating part is, even though it probably sounds idealistic to some people, to bring peaceful Europe in our everyday life and to build peace in Europe, and also to bring understanding between people of different political cultures. Personally I always wanted to work in an international organisation. It was my child dream and I have a personal fulfilment of working in the Council of Europe.”

“I started working at the Council of Europe in 2004 just after leaving university. I had applied to do a training course and I was lucky enough to be accepted. I was very enthusiastic about coming here and getting an idea of what was going on at the Council of Europe. I am French but that’s not very exotic at the Council. I’ve been working in the secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly since 2005. Our everyday work consists in helping the President in her different duties. What makes the work most exciting is when unexpected things happen. It’s having to respond quickly and having to be there to meet a request that you weren’t expecting at all. The most interesting tasks are obviously missions and particularly the part when we have to be present in member states. Our everyday work is obviously a multicultural experience and that is very pleasing. You learn something new every day and it is often something that makes an impression on you and shapes your life”