Prezentacija - BOSANSKI

Presentation - ENGLISH

The general Council of Europe exhibition kit - BOSANSKI

The general Council of Europe exhibition kit - ENGLISH

Komitet ministara: Ministar vanjskih poslova Zlatko Lagumdžija predstavlja BiH u Komitetu ministara VE.

Stalno Predstavništvo BiH u Vijeću Evrope

Zdenko MARTINOVIĆ, ambasador BiH
Mirsa MUHAREMAGIĆ, Chargée d’affaires u Vijeću Evrope, Strasbourg od decembra 2008.

The Council was set up to:

• defend human rights, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law,
• develop continent-wide agreements to standardise member countrie's social and legal practices,
• promote awareness of a European identity based on shared values and cutting across different cultures.

Since 1989, its main job has become:

• acting as a political anchor and human rights watchdog for Europe's post-communist democracies,
• assisting the countries of central and eastern Europe in carrying out and consolidating political, legal and constitutional reform in parallel with economic reform,
• providing know -how in areas such as human rights, local democracy, education, culture and the environment.

The Council of Europe is the continent's oldest political organisation, founded in 1949. It:

• groups together 47 countries, including 22 countries from Central and Eastern Europe,
• has application from 1 more country (Bélarus),
• has granted observer status to 5 more countries (the Holy See, the United States, Canada, Japan and Mexico),
• is distinct from the 27-nation European Union, but no country has ever joined the Union without first belonging to the Council of Europe,
• has its headquarters in Strasbourg, in north-eastern France

• the Committee of Ministers, composed of the 47 Foreign ministers or their Strasbourg-based deputies(ambassadors/permanent representatives), which is the Organisation's decision-making body
  
• the Parliamentary Assembly, grouping 636 members (318 representatives and 318 substitutes) from the 47 national parliaments. The current President is Mevlut Cavasoglu (AK Party, Turkey)
  
• the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, composed of a Chamber of Local Authorities and a Chamber of Regions. Its current President is Keith Whitmore (United Kingdom, ILDG) – President of the Congress; Jean-Claude Frécon (France, SOC) – President of the Chamber of Local Authorities; Herwig Van taa (Austria, EPP/CD) – President of the Chamber of Regions
  
• the 1800-strong secretariat headed since September 2004 by Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland (Labour Party, Norway).