Summits

As is customary in intergovernmental organisations, the decision-making body of the Council of Europe gathers once a year for a plenary meeting. Since its members are the foreign ministers of the member States, this meeting is called a ministerial conference. However, if decisions of great importance are to be taken, a meeting at the highest governmental level can be called for. The participants in such a summit are the Heads of State and Government of the member States.

Since its foundation in 1949, the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe have made use of this possibility only three times.
 
First Summit: Vienna, Austria 1993

 
The Vienna Summit was held after the Berlin wall had fallen and number of new democracies had developed in central and eastern Europe. Many of them had joined the Council of Europe and the number of member States of the organisation had increased significantly. In view of these developments, the Heads of State and Government of the member States decided to hold their very first summit since the foundation of the Council of Europe in 1949. At the summit, the following action was initiated:

 

Second Summit: Strasbourg, France 1997
 
By the time the Strasbourg Summit was held, the Council of Europe’s number of member States had once again substantially grown. The organisation now had 40 members – exactly four times as many as in 1949. At the summit, the Heads of State and Government inter alia decided to

 

Third Summit: Warsaw, Poland 2005

 
When the Warsaw Summit was held, the Council of Europe had just reached its current number of 46 member States. At the summit, the Heads of State and Government inter alia
 

 

Fourth Summit: Reykjavik, Iceland 16-17 May 2023

 
By the time the fourth summit was held, Europe faced new challenges: Democracy was backsliding, efforts to undermine the rule of law were made even by some member States, and challenges to the human rights protection system were on the rise. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine had brough war back to Europe and led to the Russian Federation’s expulsion from the Council of Europe in 2022, after 26 years of membership.
 
In order to respond to these challenges and set a common course, the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe member States decided inter alia to

  • create a Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation Against Ukraine in the form of an Enlarged Partial Agreement
  • take measures to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the children of Ukraine
  • adopt the Reykjavík Principles for Democracy in order to promote, protect and strengthen democracy throughout the member States
  • recommit themselves firmly to the core values of the Council of Europe – human rights, democracy and the rule of law – the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) as the cornerstones of the Council of Europe’s protection of human rights
  • ensure the respect for the rule of law, inter alia by raising the profile of the Venice Commission and giving more visibility and status to its Rule of Law Checklist
  • initiate the Reykjavik process which not only aims to make the environment a visible priority of the Council of Europe in a world which faces a triple crisis of pollution, climate change and loss of biodiversity, but also wants to contribute to the development of common responses these challenges

 

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