GENERAL INFORMATION
Introduction
Set up in 1949, the Council of Europe is a political intergovernmental organization with pan-European dimension. Its permanent headquarters are in Strasbourg, France. It represents 47 European pluralist democracies, with 5 observer states (Canada, the Holy See, Japan, Mexico and the United States of America). It provides an ideal forum for political co-operation, defending the aspirations and concerns of 800 million Europeans. This is the first organisation representing the whole continent. It symbolises the commitment of Europe’s democratic states to certain shared values – human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

Aims

• to protect human rights, pluralist democracy and the rule of law;
• to promote awareness and encourage the development of Europe's cultural identity and diversity;
• to find common solutions to the challenges facing European society: such as discrimination against minorities, xenophobia, intolerance, bioethics and cloning, terrorism, trafficking in human beings, organised crime and corruption, cyber crime, violence against children;
• to consolidate democratic stability in Europe by backing political, legislative and constitutional reform.

Although this organization has come a long way since 1949, its basic principles remained unaltered – democracy, human rights and the quality of life are at the heart of its activities. These values are a strong unifying force in Europe and the Council seeks to promote these ideals in joint solution to common problems. The Council of Europe still faces many challenges throughout the continent and is always on the alert for new threats to our democratic way of life. Today, these threats include terrorism, racism and anti-Semitism, organised crime, corruption and trafficking in human beings.

Political goals
In order to set the political aims of the organisation and confront the actual situation on the continent, the Council of Europe has organised three Summits of Heads of States and Governments.
The First Summit took place in Vienna in October 1993 and embodied the outreach to the East by choosing the policy of openness and co-operation vis-a-vis all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that opted for democracy.
The Second Summit was organized in Strasbourg in October 1997 and it was a summit of consolidation of democracy in the new member states.
The Third was the Warsaw Summit, held in May 2005 and it was the first one to bring together all the countries of Europe (with the exception of Belarus). On this Summit, Europe was finally reunited under one roof, sharing common values and objectives. This is why the political leaders named it the “Summit of European Unity”.

Structure
The main component parts of the Council of Europe are:

• the Committee of Ministers, the Organisation's decision-making body, composed of the 47 Foreign Ministers or their Strasbourg-based deputies (ambassadors/permanent representatives);
• the Parliamentary Assembly, driing force for European co-operation, grouping 636 members (318 representatives and 318 substitutes) from the 47 national parliaments;
• the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, the voice of Europe's regions and municipalities, composed of a Chamber of Local Authorities and a Chamber of Regions;
• the 1800-strong Secretariat recruited from member states, headed by a Secretary General, elected by the Parliamentary Assembly.

English and French are the Council of Europe's two official languages. German, Italian and Russian are also working languages.