Strasbourg, 11/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - In his report on relations between the Council of Europe and the European Union, which he wrote in a personal capacity to Heads of State and Governments from the Europe of 46, the Luxembourg Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, has produced a road map for clarifying and strengthening cooperation between the two organisations. A very political text, it suggests concrete measures, including internal reforms, that require real drive and changes in behaviour. Two milestones mark this road map: EU access to the European Convention of Human Rights and the EU's accession to the Council of Europe. The first is expected to be done on the basis of Article 48 of the EU Treaty and will help assert the primacy of the pan-European organisation in the area of Human Rights, while consolidating the European jurisdictional edifice. The second, Juncker has said will be around 2010, following the elections of 2009, and which paves the way for a new Council of Europe perspective.
In the meantime, the two organisations will have a lot to do in the internal arena, to begin with. The European Union will have to find an exit strategy from the institutional crisis arising from the French and Dutch rejections of the Constitutional Treaty, and the Council of Europe will have to carry out a number of reforms. Jean-Claude Juncker highlighted, for example, the fact that Foreign Affairs Ministers (particularly those from the 25 insist that) his report ought to be more regular on Ministerial Committee meetings. The report suggests that new election modalities for the Secretary General of the Council of Europe are needed so that this post goes to a former Head of State or Government, to give it more weight in its relationship with other organisations and governments. Juncker, who is also a Finance Minister, considered it necessary to devise a medium term budgetary programme so that the Council of Europe was assured of the necessary financial means for its tenure. As a follow-up, Mr Juncker suggests continuing with the reciprocity of representation of the two organisations, which is translated, for example, into new forms of consultations (leaders and experts from the Council of Europe should no longer be treated in Brussels in the same way as NGOs, which is currently generally the case), the opening of a European Union representation office in Strasbourg with the participation of the Council of the EU (at the moment there is only one Commission representative) and granting the Head of the Council of Europe's liaison office in Brussels diplomatic status and as broad an access as possible to information. The report also mentions reinforcing regular meetings between leaders of the two organisations (quad-partite) with a more practical agenda and developed cooperation between the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly and the European Parliament.
In this context, the two organisations could develop a partnership based on common European values focusing on human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Council of Europe should, nonetheless, not have to abandon its other domains of excellence: education, culture and youth affairs. In all these areas, the Council of Europe's consultation mechanisms should be planned alongside the European Union. The EU is also invited to sign up to the Eurimages fund.
The report is unequivocal, in connection with the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, that the latter will only deal with fundamental rights as part of the implementation into Community law. The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) and Council of Europe follow-up mechanisms will be contained in its statutes as fundamental references. The Council of Europe will be represented in leading bodies of the Agency and the Commissioner for Human Rights will participate, but without voting rights.
The EU and the Council of Europe should set up a pan-European legal and judicial area, coordinate their legislative initiatives, create a joint platform for assessing standards, intensify their cooperation activities via the Commission of Venice, the European Commission working for justice efficiency, the Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) and Moneyval (the EU is urged to join the committee against money-laundering).
In other sectors, cooperation from the Council of Europe in programmes set up by the European Union must be encouraged. This is notably the case with the neighbourhood policy.
Finally, there is an area where we must all do what we do best: - multicultural dialogue. The Council of Europe should, with EU aid, develop its work on intercultural dialogue in Europe whereas the EU should deal with the “diplomatic” dimension of this dialogue with third countries. Intercultural dialogue in Europe must not be confused with Euro-Atlantic dialogue or Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue, the report states, adding that those are the necessary dialogues that the EU has the means to conduct in the context of its common foreign and security policy.
Jean-Claude Juncker speaks of necessary minimum
The Luxembourg prime minister, who presented his report to the parliamentary assembly in Strasbourg on Tuesday morning, said he recommended the “necessary minimum”. He went on to explain that the Council of Europe is not the anti-chamber to the European Union and that the European Union must not seek to absorb the Council of Europe. Both organisations, he said, must rule out stupid and harmful rivalry. He pressed in favour of a partnership based on common European values. In his view, the Council of Europe and the European Union are based first and foremost on a certain concept of human rights and, as there is consensus between the EU Member States on EU access to the European Convention on Human Rights, the Union must use Article 48 of the current Treaty as a basis. Juncker admitted that he had long hesitated before making this proposal, saying that he had feared the consequences of this form of “cherry picking” when it comes to ratification of the constitutional treaty. Without going into the details of his report, he nonetheless highlighted the need for the Union bodies to recognise the Council of Europe as a reference in terms of human rights. He also urged for strengthening of the Commissioner for Human Rights and stressed that the future Agency on Fundamental Rights should only deal with human rights when it is a matter of implementing Community law. Before concluding his speech, Jean-Claude Juncker said he hoped to see the MEPs again at least once a year to discuss follow-up on his report by governments and institutions.
After the fashion of Spanish Socialist Luis Maria de Puig and Belgian Christian Democrat Luc van den Brande, MEPs welcomed the Juncker report. “I approve the recommendations, including that which says I should have been prime minister of the United Kingdom before becoming secretary general of the Council. I am sure my mother would have agreed with that”, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis said ironically before continuing in a more serious vein to say that the prime minister's proposals are clear, pragmatic and useful. They also call for important decisions from the European Union, he said, hoping that Mr Juncker will find a way to present his report during a relevant meeting of the Twenty-Five. The secretary general stressed, moreover, the importance of the last recommendation in the report: that which covers EU accession to the Council of Europe.
Concrete proposals for reforming partnership - Juncker report discussed at June European Council
Thanking Jean-Claude Juncker for his commitment in favour of the Council of Europe, Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu said the report contains “concrete proposals for rekindling the partnership” that must now be integrated into the memorandum of understanding being developed and that the Romanian Council of Europe presidency hopes to finalise during the ministerial meeting on 18 and 19 May. The prime minister hopes to include a maximum number of proposals contained in the report in this memorandum negotiated between the EU and the Council of Europe, but also provides for the creation of a group of eminent figures from the Council of Europe (the troika of successive presidencies, the secretary general and the president of the Assembly) which will be entrusted with the task of implementation of recommendations and which should report in one year's time. He suggested that the EU adopt the same mechanism. EUROPE has reason to believe that Russia, which will hold the Council of Europe presidency in May, would like to move faster toward achieving the work required for implementation of the Juncker report under its presidency.
Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel recalled that Austria had provided for the Council of Europe three secretaries-general, two presidents of the Assembly and a president for the Congress of local powers, and that it had hosted the organisation's first summit in Vienna. Speaking in his capacity as president of the European Council, he described the Juncker report as a “very positive contribution” and stressed the need to strengthen dialogue and cooperation between the two organisations. “The human rights agency is not in danger, but is an opportunity for the Council of Europe to strengthen cooperation between the two organisations”, Mr Schüssel said, before going on to announce that the Juncker report will be discussed during the European Council on 15 and 16 June, with a reference in the conclusions.
Strengthen values and complementarity
The president of the European Commission, like the other speakers, highlighted the need to reduce duplication and avoid superfluous competition, as well as strengthen common values and complementarity between the two organisations. José Manuel Barroso underlined "the importance of the the Commission of Venice' expertise" as well as that of the Commissioner for Human Rights, including the need to "protect individuals having the right to go to the European Court of Justice". He encouraged the eleven countries that had not yet ratified the Protocol No.14 of the European Convention on Human Rights to do so and for Russia (which it did not name) to ratify Protocol No. 6 abolition of the death penalty. José Manuel Barroso said that they had to "carefully examine the recommendations" from the Juncker report, which he described as having "good ideas" and a "very good basis" for the next discussions on the memorandum of understanding between the EU and Council of' Europe.