5 May - Europe Day - Former editions

70 years after its foundation, the Council of Europe is our continent’s leading human rights organisation.  47 member States have come together to agree common standards on human rights, democracy and the rule of law. All 830 million people living in this common legal space have an ultimate right of appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.  This is unprecedented in European history, and an achievement that we should celebrate.

The European Convention on Human Rights and the European Social Charter are the living roots from which our Organisation grows. Over the years the Council of Europe has drawn on these rights, applying them to specific issues and providing additional protection for individuals.  This has involved the provision of new legal instruments, based on commonly agreed standards.  In this way we have acted to protect national minorities and regional and minority languages and to combat the sexual exploitation and abuse of children and violence against women and domestic violence.  We have taken measures to prevent torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, to tackle trafficking in human beings and human organs and to stop the abuse of personal data and acts of cybercrime.  We have also been active in ensuring the safety and integrity of sports, the accessibility of European culture, and education that promotes equality, inclusion and democratic citizenship.

In the modern world, challenges keep coming. Today, these include the management of the Artificial Intelligence revolution, the scourge of modern slavery, and growing inequality in many of our societies.  In the years ahead, as yet unimagined problems will emerge too.  A strong Council of Europe, with its Committee of Ministers and Parliamentary Assembly, will draw on the capacity of our Convention system – and the will of our member States – to provide the multilateral solutions from which citizens across the continent will benefit.

• Read full Joint statement by Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland, President of the Parliamentary Assembly Liliane Maury Pasquier and Chairman of the Committee of Ministers Timo Soini
• ''The Council of Europe at 70: Milestones & achievements''

“Today we celebrate Europe Day.

Being the Chair of the Committee Ministers on Europe Day in 2018 affords me two opportunities: first, to congratulate and express my support for all those who work every day to champion and take forward fundamental rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe and, second, to call for vigilance in ensuring that there is no backtracking on these principles, and thus guarantee Europe’s peace and prosperity in keeping with the goal we set ourselves in 1949.

On 5 May 1949, the Council of Europe was founded to bring peace and prosperity to Europe after two world wars had cast their deadly shadow across the continent.

To achieve this, the 47 member States of the Council of Europe have undertaken both to respect individual freedoms and fundamental rights and to be guided on the principles of democracy and the rule of law.

Much progress has been made since 1949 and the Council of Europe has demonstrated its potential to develop new legal standards and respond to new challenges to protect and promote these principles.

But much remains to be done. New conflicts have arisen in Europe and others endure. There are also too many people who still live in poverty or suffer from injustice, discrimination or infringements of their dignity or their civil and political rights.”

In 1964, the Committee of Ministers took the decision to celebrate the Day of Europe, that is the establishment of the Council of Europe, on May 5th.  The Council of Europe was created in the aftermath of the Second World War, in the context of a new European structure, contemplated to bring peace and prosperity on the European continent and avoid repetition of the disasters brought about by two annihilating wars since the beginning of the century.

In holding the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on this year’s Day of Europe, it provides me the opportunity to extend a message of the necessity to highlight our collective achievements these past 68 years, in strengthening democracy and the rule of law in our member States and in guaranteeing all people present on the European continent their fundamental rights and freedoms.  In dealing with the challenges currently before Europe, we need to strengthen our democratic security, by investing in more democracy, more freedom, open, tolerant and pluralistic societies, and by making full use of the tools and the mechanisms afforded by the Council of Europe. 

In full recognition of the significant work of the Organisation, I would like to pay tribute to the Secretary General, the officials and the staff of the Organisation, as well as to the member States, for their tireless efforts in advancing our common values and principles.

On Saturday 9 May at 11.00 a.m., a ceremony to mark Europe Day and to commemorate the end of the Second World War and liberation of Europe will be held at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Anne Brasseur, and the Chair of the Ministers’ Deputies of the Council of Europe, Ambassador Dirk van Eeckhout will deliver speeches and lay flowers in memory of those who lost their lives in the fight against Nazism.

Media representatives are invited to cover the event scheduled to start at 11.00 a.m. on Saturday 9 May on the forecourt of the Palais de l’Europe (Avenue de l’Europe) in Strasbourg.

The ceremony is open to the public.

• Programme