On Wednesday 11 October, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) launched an appeal for a fourth summit of the Council of Europe to be held in order to “preserve and reinforce the pan-European project in a Europe that has changed profoundly since 2005”, when the last summit was held, in Warsaw.
A new summit of the heads of state or government of the 47 member countries of the Council of Europe would define the role that the CoE should play in the European political landscape and deal with outstanding questions concerning its relations with the European Union.
It would also provide an opportunity for the two statutory bodies of the CoE - the Committee of Ministers and PACE - to commit to a procedure aiming to harmonise the rules governing the participation and representation of the member states.
Currently, there is an inconsistency in the composition of these two bodies, as the Russian Federation continues to have a seat at the Committee of Ministers, whilst its delegation walked out of the hemicycle of PACE three years ago over sanctions handed down to its members following the annexation of Crimea. This situation damages the overall impact of the organisation as guardian of human rights and democracy throughout the continent.
The report by Italian Socialist Michele Nicoletti, on which the calls for a new summit are based, points out that when he came to Strasbourg on 10 October 2016, the former French President, François Hollande, proposed to hold such an event in Strasbourg in 2019, to mark the 70th anniversary of the CoE.
“Does this invitation still stand”, the reporter asked, appealing to Emmanuel Macron's pro-European profile. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)