Since Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of a ‘European Political Community’ (EPC) in Strasbourg on 9 May, the question has arisen as to what role this will leave for the Council of Europe (COE), the largest and oldest pan-European organisation, which was founded in the same city over 70 years ago.
With its 44 participating states, the EPC sees itself as a “greater Europe”, just as the COE was seen as the “gateway” to the European Union when many Central and Eastern European countries joined after the collapse of the Soviet empire in the 1990s.
It includes 46 countries. Andorra, Liechtenstein and San Marino are among them, but they cannot be said to be seriously missed by the EPC, which includes Kosovo, which is not part of the COE.
For the time being, Strasbourg is waiting to see what happens at the inaugural meeting of the EPC in Prague on Thursday 6 October.
“We are following the discussions on the European Political Community, which is still to be defined”, the COE Secretary General, Marija Pejčinović Burić, told EUROPE, before adding that “it is to be noted that in the field of human rights, democracy and the Rule of law, such a pan-European community already exists and it is embodied by the Council of Europe”.
According to Frédérique Berrod, professor of European Union law at Sciences Po Strasbourg and author, with Birte Wassenberg, of a book on EU/Council of Europe relations, the Strasbourg-based organisation has an interest in “highlighting this human rights/democracy/Rule of law expertise” in order to stand out.
“The only possible point of friction with the EPC”, she added, was “cyber security”, an area in which “the Council of Europe has made good progress”.
According to her, for the EPC, “the next move will be at its second meeting” (scheduled for spring 2023). It will then be necessary to “define the links between this new entity and international organisations such as the Organisation for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE) and the COE”.
As far as the Council of Europe is concerned, Frédérique Berrod also emphasised that its inclusion in the work of the EPC would legitimise the presence of the European Commission and make it possible to “find a place” at the discussion tables for the United Kingdom, which is now outside the European Union but still a member state of the Strasbourg-based organisation.
A report on the future of the Council of Europe was published late Wednesday, on the eve of the EPC meeting in Prague.
Drafted by a group of international experts including Federica Mogherini, former High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, it calls for a “correct articulation” with the European Political Community and for a fourth Council of Europe summit at which a “joint declaration” would “clarify” the roles of each.
The word “clarify” will indeed count in a Europe of increasingly variable geometry. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)