Strasbourg, 24/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - “A little of the European idea has disappeared today with the British vote to leave the EU”, said Pedro Agramunt (European People's Party, Spain), addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), meeting in plenary session in Strasbourg on Friday 24 June. In his view, “the effect will be felt, nor just in the European Union, but also in all the international organisations, including the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly”.
The result of the UK referendum is, then, of concern in Strasbourg. In the Council of Europe (CoE), it is hoped this wake-up call will provide fresh impetus to the inter-parliamentary dialogue in Europe. This dialogue within PACE, where the UK remains a major player, should be stepped up so that European ideals can be achieved. For the CoE, these ideals are defence of democracy, human rights and the rule of law on which the organisation was based when it was founded in 1949.
Thorbjorn Jagland, CoE Secretary General, recalled these founding principles. He urged both London and the European institutions to have them in the forefront of their minds when it comes time to negotiate the most acceptable withdrawal for the people of the United Kingdom and of the European Union.
The United Kingdom (Ed: a founding member of the CoE) will not change its commitment to these principles, said Sir Roger Gale, head of the UK delegation to PACE. These comments were welcomed by Agramunt but they do not remove the latent tension between the United Kingdom and the Council of Europe over relations between London and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Rulings by the Court are regularly questioned in the UK. In February 2011, the UK parliament went as far as refusing to comply with an ECHR decision on prisoners' right to vote. A UK law dating from 1870 was reactivated at the time.
In October 2014, the Conservatives, meeting in Birmingham, went further, publicly announcing plans to withdraw the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights, to “restore sovereignty to Westminster” and to make the ECHR a consultative body. At the time, the daily The Guardian described the proposal as “flirting with UKIP” (United Kingdom Independence Party). (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)