The Council of Europe and the European Union: different roles, shared values

 


The Council of Europe and the European Union share the same fundamental values – human rights, democracy and the rule of law – but are separate entities which perform different, yet complementary, roles.

Focusing on those core values, the Council of Europe brings together governments from across Europe – and beyond – to agree minimum legal standards in a wide range of areas. It then monitors how well countries apply the standards that they have chosen to sign up to. It also provides technical assistance, often working together with the European Union, to help them do so.

The European Union refers to those same European values as a key element of its deeper political and economic integration processes. It often builds upon Council of Europe standards when drawing up legal instruments and agreements which apply to its 27 member states. Furthermore, the European Union regularly refers to Council of Europe standards and monitoring work in its dealings with neighbouring countries, many of which are Council of Europe member states.

The Lisbon Treaty increased the scope for European Union action in many areas where the Council of Europe already has significant experience and expertise. This has led to increased cooperation on issues such as fighting human trafficking, the sexual exploitation of children and violence against women. It has also opened the way for the European Union itself to sign up to the European Convention on Human Rights, and to other Council of Europe agreements.

Relations between the Council of Europe and the European Union are set out in the:

Atrás Jean-Claude Mignon and Štefan Füle: our co-operation is a powerful tool to support democracy

Jean-Claude Mignon, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and Štefan Füle, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, issued today the following statement, on the occasion of Commissioner Füle's visit to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe :

"Our close and joint cooperation and engagement with our partners in the East and in the Southern neighbourhood represents a powerful instrument to support their process of transformation and the development of deep rooted democracy. Our co-operation is part of a well-defined strategy and the European Union-Council of Europe joint programmes provide the countries with real support and practical, visible results.

In order to boost the impact of our action still further, we wish to expand the parliamentary side of our joint assistance and co-operation programmes, focusing in particular on increasing the capacity of national parliaments in the areas of drafting legislation and developing the skills of parliamentary staff, as well as the establishment of parliamentary procedures which fully respect political pluralism in parliaments. (more...)

Video of the press conference
Video of the speech
Speech

See also: The Council of Europe and the European Union: different roles, shared values

Parliamentary Assembly Strasbourg 24/01/2013
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The Annual Receipts on EU contributions under Joint Programmes between the Council of Europe and the European Union in 2019, amounted to €206.1 million. Co-funded by EU at 85%, by CoE at 15%

29 new Joint Programmes negotiated in 2019 for a total of €111.7 million.

Global Action on Cybercrime (GLACY), video report on a joint project between the Council of Europe and the European Union