The Council of Europe

Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland (r) and OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger, New York, 25 September 2018.

(Council of Europe/Daniel Holtgen)

The OSCE and the Council of Europe (CoE) pursue, on an equal footing and according to their own mandates and working methods, a common goal: the promotion of stability and security on the basis of democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights in Europe.

The OSCE and the CoE have a well-established and long-standing relationship, based on their shared values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. CoE legal instruments are complemented by the OSCE’s norm-setting political commitments, Institutions and strong field presence. There are four priority areas for enhanced OSCE-CoE co-operation:

Fight against terrorism
Combating trafficking in human beings
Promoting tolerance and non-discrimination
Protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities

In addition, the two organizations co-operate in the fields of:

Election observation
Legislation reform
Roma and Sinti
Human rights
Democratization
Local Government

Framework for co-operation

A number of decisions and meetings have contributed to granting the process of OSCE-CoE co-operation a prominent spot on the political agenda. In 2005, the efforts to create synergies have been reflected in the Declaration on Co-operation between the OSCE and the CoE at the Third CoE Summit of Heads of State and Government in Warsaw on 16 and 17 May 2005.

The OSCE - CoE Co-ordination Group was established in December 2004. It aims to move the process of co-operation forward by identifying areas for enhanced co-operation and appointing focal points. The co-operation is reviewed bi-annually at meetings hosted alternately in Vienna and Strasbourg.

The Document “Relations between the OSCE and the CoE: Common Catalogue of Co-operation Modalities”, signed by the respective Secretaries General in April 2000, provides details on the co-operation framework and elaborates on joint regular meetings and, such as:

Annual "2+2/3+3" and high-level meetings
Visits of the Secretaries General, the Chairmanships and Heads of Institutions to sessions of the decision-making bodies of the two organizations, the Permanent Council in Vienna and the Committee of Ministers in Strasbourg, respectively

The OSCE/ODIHR co-operates closely with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Venice Commission on election observation and review of legislation. In addition, the ODIHR works with the CoE in the area of human rights, democratization, fight against terrorism and combating trafficking in human beings.

The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) closely co-operates with the CoE’s monitoring bodies through the exchange of country monitoring information and participation in events. The HCNM also engages in fruitful co-operation with the Venice Commission, the Commissioner for Human Rights and Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities on thematic issues, including linguistic rights and the use of majority and minority languages. The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFOM) co-operates with CoE in the field of reviewing media legislation and has established particularly effective co-operation with the Office of CoE Human Rights Commissioner. RFOM has an observer status in some of the specialized CoE Committees dealing with media freedom issues.

Many OSCE field operations actively co-operate with the CoE and exchange information on a wide range of topics as well as organise joint events pertaining to their respective mandates.