Strasbourg, 08/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - The 45 Member States of the Council of Europe agreed on Thursday to hold a summit of heads of state in Warsaw (Poland) on 16/17 May 2005. Council of Europe Secretary General Walter Schwimmer immediately welcomed the decision. In a press release he said the summit would determine the future of the oldest and broadest of Europe's political organisations. An action plan adopted at the Summit will attempt to meet pan-European challenges and threats and protect the interests of the 800 million Europeans living in Council of Europe Member States, said Schwimmer.
The Summit will be the third such event organised by the Council of Europe, following the Vienna Summit of 1993, which focussed on adapting the Council of Europe to cope with its enlargement to the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe, and the Strasbourg Summit of 1997, which gave a new impetus to the protection of human rights.