Council of Europe – Test Yourself

The Co-operation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Drugs (Pompidou Group) was founded in 1971 at the initiative of the late French president Georges Pompidou.

The Council of Europe's European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) entered into force in 1953. This international treaty is the basis of the human rights protection of the whole continent.
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The Lisbon Treaty (2009) regularises the cooperation within the European Union member States. The Rome Statute (1998) is the legal basis of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The Treaty of Rome (1957) established i.a. the European Economic Community (EEC).

Democracy and the rule of law are inseparably linked and provide the foundation for all effective human rights protection.

The founding States of the Council of Europe created the ECHR in order to prevent atrocities like the ones committed during the Second World War from ever happening again and at the same time promote the development of democracy in Europe and thereby bring lasting peace to the continent.

The annual contribution of each member State towards the ordinary budget of the Council of Europe is based on a formula that takes into account population and gross domestic product. On top of that, the member states are free to fund particular projects via voluntary contributions.

Convinced, that Europe was in need of a uniting symbol, the Council of Europe adopted the European flag in 1955. In 1985, a predecessor organisation of today's European Union (EU) adopted the flag as well.

The European Pharmacopoeia is based on a Council of Europe convention which entered into force in 1964. It includes more than 2’500 quality standards and guidelines and is the most comprehensive set of regulations of its kind in Europe.

In 1972, the Council of Europe adopted an instrumental version of the main theme of the last movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 as its anthem. The lyrics in the original version - "Ode of Joy" - had been taken from a poem by German poet Friedrich Schiller. In 1985, the European anthem was adopted by a predecessor of today's European Union.

Contrary to the United Nations' system, no Council of Europe member State has veto power.
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The ten founding members are: Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The four largest financial contributors are: Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

The staggering number of applications shows what an important role the Court plays for people all over Europe, and to what extent the Council of Europe's member States have to step up their national human rights protection.

All 27 EU member States are also member States of the Council of Europe, because being a member in this organisation - known as the "School of Democracy" - has become one of the preconditions for joining the EU.

Founded in 1949, the Council of Europe is not only the largest but also the oldest intergovernmental organisation for human rights in Europe.
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The European Parliament is not connected to the Council of Europe: it is one of the European Union's two legislative bodies.

The judges are elected by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from a shortlist of three candidates, proposed by each State, for a non-renewable term of nine years.

The Council of Europe's working languages are English and French, but the European Court of Human Rights accepts applications in any official language spoken in a Council of Europe member State and even handwritten applications are accepted.

An aerial view of the European Court of Human Rights reveals that the building mimics the scales of justice with the two main court rooms as weighing dishes.
 
 
 

The Council of Europe uses English and French as working languages. Interpreters for both languages are present in all the meetings, and documents are also published in both of them.

Since 1990, the "European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment" (CPT) regularly checks prisons and other places of detention in all Council of Europe member States.
GRETA is the Council of Europe's monitoring-body with regard to trafficking in human beings. ECRI is the Council of Europe's European Commission against Racism and Intolerance. GRECO is the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption.

In 1951, Germany's chancellor and foreign minister Adenauer said in a speech at the Council of Europe: "It is of great significance for the political development of Europe that here, in the organs of the Council of Europe, we have a platform on which the representatives of Europe meet regularly, discuss their worries and anxieties, their desires and their hopes, a platform where they try to establish common criteria for evaluating their requirements, and where, in general, they co-operate with one another in a spirit of fairness and of good neighbourliness. In other words, here we find an expression of the European conscience."

The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) consists of democratically elected members of each member State's national parliament.
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The European Parliament and the European Commission are both bodies of the European Union. They are not connected to the Council of Europe.

Former Swiss Federal Counselor Alain Berset was elected Secretary General of the Council of Europe in 2024. Michael O’Flaherty is the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights. Bjørn Berge ist the Council of Europe’s Deputy Secretary General. Luzius Wildhaber was the first President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

The Council of Europe is Europe's oldest and largest intergovernmental organisation for human rights, and the European Court of Human Rights is its best known instrument.
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The European Union (EU) is a supranational union of states, and the European Council and the European Commission are bodies of the European Union. None of them are connected to the Council of Europe.

Ever since its foundation in 1949, the Council of Europe has protected and promoted human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
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The European Union is not an intergovernmental organisation but a supranational union of 27 member States. It is not connected to the Council of Europe, and neither is the European Parliament, which is an EU body.

The "Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms" - that's the European Convention on Human Rights' official name - was adopted by the member States of the Council of Europe in 1950 and entered into force in 1953.

Eurimages, the Council of Europe's European Cinema Support Fund, was founded in 1989. It supports feature films, documentaries and animations which have at least two co-producers from different member States of the fund.