“Despite not being at the negotiating table, the Council of Europe stands ready to support Ukraine in achieving a just and lasting peace”, said the Strasbourg-based organisation’s Secretary General Alain Berset on Tuesday 17 February, at the end of a two-day visit to Ukraine.
This support has already resulted in the creation of a mechanism to compensate for war damages and the launch of work towards establishing a special tribunal to investigate Russia’s crime of aggression against Ukraine, but it also concerns the democratic and Rule of law reforms that are essential to the country’s EU integration.
Alain Berset thus reaffirmed to President Zelensky a desire “to contribute to the areas covered in the discussions in which the Council of Europe has unique and relevant expertise – elections (including at local and regional level), reparations, minority rights, including minority languages, religious tolerance, humanitarian issues, restoring functioning and democratic local institutions in de-occupied areas, as well as carrying out constitutional reform which may be triggered by a peace agreement”.
These reforms are supported by several Council of Europe bodies: the Venice Commission (constitutional issues), GRECO (the fight against corruption), the European Court of Human Rights and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
The Council of Europe’s recognised expertise has already been put to good use through various cooperation initiatives, notably in strengthening the judicial system.
Another major asset is the Kyiv office, which is “the largest of all the Council of Europe’s field offices”.
Essential reforms have already been undertaken within the framework of the ‘Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2023-2026’, entitled ‘Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction’.
These reforms are indispensable, as are those that will be at the heart of the ‘Action Plan for Ukraine 2027-2030’, which focuses on the democratic security essential for EU membership.
This membership “is part of Ukraine’s security guarantees, and supporting the reforms necessary for Ukraine’s EU integration is also an investment in Ukraine’s democratic security”, emphasises Alain Berset.
The issue, he says, concerns Ukraine “but also European security as a whole”.
Link to the ‘Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2023-2026’: https://aeur.eu/f/ksf (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)