News item | 28-04-2023 | 13:11
Prime Minister Rutte will attend the summit of the Council of Europe in Reykjavik on 16 and 17 May 2023. It is the fourth time in the history of the Council of Europe that heads of state and government have come together to discuss the future of the organisation. The last time was 18 years ago.
The summit in May will be dedicated to reaffirming the Council of Europe’s values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. In particular, support to member state Ukraine is high on the agenda.
The Council of Europe was established in 1949 to promote and protect the principles of human rights, the rule of law and democracy in Europe. The Council of Europe has forty-six member states and its highest organs are the Committee of Ministers, consisting of the foreign ministers of the member states, and a Parliamentary Assembly, consisting of more than three hundred members of the forty-six national parliaments.
The Council of Europe also has a large number of bodies, of which the European Court of Human Rights is the best known. The Court supervises compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights. With the help of its organs and treaties, the Council of Europe aims to create a single legal area on the European continent and thereby strengthen unity between the Member States.