The Committee of Ministers is the Council of Europe’s (COE) decision-making body. It is constituted by the Foreign Ministers of the member states or their permanent diplomatic representatives to the COE.
10/12/2007 ::
The Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers is held by the member countries on a rotating basis, following the alphabetical order of the English language.
The handover of the chairmanship from Serbia to Slovakia took place November 12th, 2007. During this meeting, Jan Kubis, the Slovakian Minister for Foreign Affairs presented his state’s priorities for the coming six months.
Slovakia’s priorities will be based around three broad themes:
Promoting a citizens’ Europe:
The Slovak Chairmanship will emphasise the Council of Europe’s need for openness, engagement, responsibility and efficiency as well as its need for solidarity with non-governmental organisations and civil society, in relation to its activities and further development. It will also work for the development of e-democracy (ways in which technology may contribute to more democratic societies by providing means of communication and information between the people and the government) and tools to implement this.
A transparent and efficient Council of Europe
In order to guarantee complementarity and synergy between the main European organisations, Slovakia will aim to further promote dialogue, exchange of experiences and good practices and to improve the co-ordination of activities. Also, the Slovak chairmanship will support the ongoing work aimed at strengthening the system of human rights protection of the Council of Europe, in particular the European Court of Human Rights, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the European Commission against racism and Intolerance.
Respect for and promotion of core values
The Slovak Chairmanship will strive to ensure the fulfillment of commitments relating to shared values and standards, which Council of Europe member states have signed up for. The core values are human rights, rule of law and democracy. It will also lead efforts in the fight against discrimination, racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, extreme nationalism and chauvinism, and will promote the truth about the Holocaust.
Slovakia will pursue the objective of a peaceful, secure and socially responsible Europe and the development of a mutually beneficial co-operation, at the European and the international level. It will support both the strengthening of security and stability in the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe, and the further deepening of the European integration process, and will support the full use of all assistance and co-operation programmes of the Council of Europe that would change Belarus’ attitude with respect to meeting the criteria for membership.
During the chairmanship period, Slovakia will take advantage of the 10th anniversary of the entry into force of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities to support the continuation and development of the activities in the areas of the protection of minorities, fight against racism and intolerance as well as against social exclusion.