Speaking at a round table event in Strasbourg to mark the 30th anniversary of the North-South Centre, Marija Pejčinović Burić, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, called on European states to join the international forum “to better tackle global challenges such as populism and radicalisation, climate change, conflict and instability and resulting migrant flows”.
“These global challenges do not stop at borders or regions”, she stressed. “They affect both member states of the Council of Europe and our neighbours. The North-South Centre’s work today is more urgent than ever”.
Officially known as the 'European Centre for Global Interdependence and Solidarity of the Council of Europe', the centre, which was set up in Lisbon in 1989, was part of a “conscious desire to reach out to the Council of Europe's immediate neighbours, to engage in intercultural dialogue and to raise awareness of the common challenges we might address together to guarantee our societies' sustainability”.
It has a “unique” quadripartite structure that brings together governments, parliamentarians, local and regional authorities and civil society. It has been responsible for “great achievements in areas such as judicial reform, education and public participation”, and “an increasing number of Council of Europe treaties ratified by non-member states”, said Burić.
The North-South Centre currently includes 21 member states: Algeria, Andorra, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cape Verde, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Holy See, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Spain and Tunisia.
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe hopes to see an increase in this number. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)