As delivered

Chairman in Office,

Secretary General,

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a pleasure to address your Permanent Council this morning, and I thank the Slovak Republic’s Chairman in Office for the invitation to do so.

I read with interest Mr Lajčák’s statement from last Friday and the Batislava Appeal, which clearly aims to apply the OSCE’s current tools and capabilities to the new challenges facing your member states and indeed beyond.

I am sure that the incoming Albanian Chairmanship will provide drive and commitment over the course of the year to come.

And I congratulate Sweden and Poland on the confirmation last week that they will hold the Chairmanship in Office for 2021 and 2022, respectively.

I am in no doubt about the importance of that role.

Arriving here in Vienna, I am very aware of the similarities between our Organisations.

Ours are two of the three biggest regional organisations in the world.

Each is Europe-centred but outward-facing to states that share our values.

And both share the objective of maintaining and promoting peace among our member states and beyond.

In this respect, we have different mandates and different means.

The OSCE seeks peace by means of security and co-operation across a wide range of important areas:

Politico-military; economic and environmental; and lastly, the important, human dimension.

Meanwhile, the Council of Europe builds peace, as our Statute says, through the greater unity of our member states.

In practice, this means the preservation and strengthening of our unique common legal space:

A legal space in which we can agree and implement common standards on human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

And it is by these means that we achieve democratic security.

So, while our respective roles are distinct, there is commonality of interest and intent.

Peace in Europe relies on both our Organisations, and it is bolstered by the synergies and close working relations that we have fostered.

I will return to this important point.

But first, I want to outline where the Council of Europe stands today, and what I believe that its priorities should be in the years to come.

I have been elected as Secretary General in the year that the Organisation is celebrating its 70th anniversary.

And next year will mark 70 years since the European Convention on Human Rights was opened for signature.

That treaty has been ratified by every one of our 47 member states.

It is interpreted and enforced by the European Court of Human Rights to which everyone in the jurisdiction those member states has the ultimate right of appeal.

And, alongside the European Social Charter, it enshrines the fundamental rights to which 830 million Europeans are entitled by law.

The Council of Europe applies these rights to specific challenges by developing new legal instruments on the basis of agreed common standards.

These include conventions on the prevention of torture, on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, against the trafficking of human organs and human beings, and cybercrime.

Other instruments aim to protect children against sexual exploitation and abuse, national minorities and regional or minority languages, and our personal data.

And the Council of Europe also supports the role of sports, culture and education, where equality, inclusion and democratic citizenship are key.

This amounts to a remarkable and unprecedented acquis that upholds European values in the interests of every citizen:

An acquis that is made in Europe, but very often deployed by other countries throughout the world.

But it is no secret that the political environment in which my Organisation – and multilateralism in general – have changed significantly in recent years.

This has had an impact on the internal dynamic within the Council of Europe and posed questions about how we can make further progress.

So, how should we position ourselves for the years to come?

The Council of Europe must remain a unique pan-European platform for constructive dialogue and co-operation between its members.

And it should continue to be the benchmark for the promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law on our continent.

In fact, that role should be enhanced.

The Statute is clear that upholding these core values is an obligation for all member states and I intend to insist on the full, unconditional and credible implementation of the commitments that they have made.

Indeed, full respect for the rights and obligations of every country within our common legal space is a must in order to create an atmosphere of trust and understanding.

In this respect, we are working on a new complementary response mechanism to address serious violations of commitments arising from membership.

Because the Council of Europe can only function to full effect when member states’ rights and responsibilities are both met in full.

We also need to reinforce the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights and other legal standards in our member states.

We must uphold the pivotal role of the European Court of Human Rights, as the guardian of the Convention, and with its right of individual application.

And the execution of judgments must be carried out smoothly and swiftly by national authorities in order to maintain the credibility of human rights protection in Europe.

I am ready to engage with member states that have experienced problems relating to this.

But I will also not shy away from possible recourse to my powers under Article 52 of the Convention, seeking explanations for systemic and persistent problems relating to implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Equally, I intend to exercise my prerogatives related to other instruments of the Council of Europe, including asking for opinions by our advisory body on constitutional law – the Venice Commission - whenever the need arises.

An important but difficult question is what we can do to better protect and promote human rights and the rule of law in unresolved conflict areas and so-called ‘grey zones’.

Every individual in our member states should be fully protected by the Convention, regardless of de facto control or the status of a given area.

And it is the responsibility of the Secretary General to seek access for relevant Council of Europe bodies.

Working with our Committee of Ministers, I hope that we can find a way to ensure that this always happens.

I hope that we can also better promote the Social Charter and social rights in Europe and give greater focus to some long-term and recurring negative trends in our member states.

These include corruption, threats to the independence of the judiciary, threats to journalists and free media, restrictions on civil society and human rights defenders, persistent gender inequality and gender-based violence, attacks on minorities and the surge in hate speech and populist rhetoric, that aims to generate support by appealing to prejudice and fear – often amplified by new technologies.

Such technologies themselves raise important questions about the future of human rights.

For example, the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence has already made a significant impact on some employment sectors, with a disproportionate impact on the female workforce.

So, there is an urgent need to explore the impact of AI on human rights, democracy and the rule of law and to consider what we might do in light of this:

To ensure that the advance of new technology supports our values, rather than undermining them.

I am therefore very pleased that the Council of Europe has established an Ad Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence to examine the feasibility and potential elements of a legal framework for the development, design and application of Artificial Intelligence.

That Ad Hoc Committee held its first plenary session last month and I look forward to hearing its proposals.

I also want to further strengthen our co-operation with other international organisations.

Let me give you some examples.

The European Union remains the largest voluntary contributor to our budget and our joint work has the potential to deepen.

In turn, the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights remains a high priority.

This intention was stated in the Treaty of Lisbon, and I am glad that the process has been relaunched.

When it comes to the United Nations, the Council of Europe is committed to helping meet the Sustainable Development Goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Yes, responsibility for implementing the SDGs rests primarily at the national level, but international organisations can certainly play their part too.

For example, in the recently adopted Council of Europe Programme and Budget, all nine operational programmes support the implementation of the SDGs.

And our relevant internal bodies have been tasked with the same aim, each asked to review regularly the progress that is being made.

Our technical cooperation programmes, the work of our North-South Centre in Lisbon and our broader Neighbourhood Policy also contribute.

And, in their national implementation reports, 20 of our member states have already referred to their work with the Council of Europe: a number that we hope will increase.

Our third principle institutional partner is of course the OSCE itself.

Co-operation between the OSCE and the Council of Europe is already excellent.

This is true of relations between our respective headquarters, in the field and between our specialised bodies.

And indeed underlined by my meetings today with Secretary General Greminger and Chairman in Office Lajčák.

The Council of Europe / OSCE Co-ordination Group meetings are effective at bringing our expertise together in our four areas of specified shared interest:

The protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities; the promotion of tolerance and non-discrimination; the fight against terrorism; and the fight against trafficking in human beings.

But, as you know, our co-operation extends far beyond these headline categories, taking in everything from elections, election observation, and freedom of the media to freedom of religion and belief, intercultural dialogue and education.

This is as it should be.

And I do not want to apply artificial limits to the scope for further joint work, whether on the ideas and priorities that I have mentioned, or new challenges that emerge.

Similarly, we should not be afraid to rationalise, where appropriate.

However, wherever possible it is important to avoid overlapping and the duplication of work both within our own Organisation and between international organisations too.

The point here is that people have an expectation that we will be pragmatic, flexible and cooperative in a way that ensures the best use of public money and delivers clear results.

And that is what we should aim to do.

Ladies and gentlemen, we live at a time of heightened attacks on the very concept of multilateralism.

But the irony is this:

When we think of the great challenges of the twenty-first century, we think of climate change and technology, conflict and migration, violence and discrimination, and terrorism, extremism and radicalisation.

None of these problems respect national border; none can be resolved by the unilateral resolve of any one government alone.

The truth is that their impact reaches us all, directly, or indirectly, and it is only by acting together that we can maximise our capacity to address them.

The Council of Europe and the OSCE will remain of prime importance in this respect.

Over the coming months and years, I look forward to our continued close co-operation.

And in that spirit, I hope that the distinguished Permanent Representative of Albania will accept our invitation to outline the programme of the new Chairmanship in Office at a meeting of the Council of Europe’s Ministers’ Deputies early next year.

Similarly, the Albanian Foreign Minister will receive an invitation to attend next May’s Ministerial Session in Tbilisi.

And I have no doubt that there will be further opportunities for us to exchange views.

In the meantime, thank you once again for the opportunity to address you, and I would welcome any questions or remarks that you may have.