Poland in the Council of Europe

The meeting was chaired from Hamburg by Minister Heiko Maas, as the head of the German chairmanship in the Committee of Ministers (November 2020 – May 2021). The Federal President of Germany, Franck-Walter Steinmeier, spoke at the opening of the meeting. The meeting was held by videoconference.

During the meeting, ministers adopted important decisions on the strategic framework for the Organization in the coming four years, on activities in areas such as human rights in the digital age, on securing the effectiveness of the European Human Rights Convention system as well as on the cooperation of the Council of Europe with the European Union.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, prof. Zbigniew Rau, underlined in his speech the need to continue the Council’s efforts on protecting and promoting the principles of human rights, democracy and rule of law while addressing the challenges in the post-pandemic societies. He referred in this regard to the new Council of Europe Strategic Framework, to assist in pursuing these priorities.

Stressing the paramount importance of the principle of respect for international law, as the foundation of the Council of Europe, Minister Zbigniew Rau, reiterated that any violations of territorial integrity and sovereignty of member states cannot and would not be accepted. Expressing regret over the denial of access for the Council of Europe monitoring bodies to the regions suffering from illegal occupation and protracted conflicts, Minister Rau stated that the people of Abkhazia, Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Nagorno Karabakh, Transnistria, South Ossetia cannot be deprived of the protection offered by the Council of Europe.

Minister Rau praised the ongoing work on the impact of Artificial Intelligence on human rights, pointed to the need of improving coherence of monitoring activities as well as increasing contribution of civil society to the Organisation’s activity. He expressed support for strengthening the co-operation between the Council of Europe and the European Union.

With regard to the situation in Belarus, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, reminded that repressions of the civil society in this country cannot be ignored. Minister Rau called on the Committee of Ministers for action to halt these deplorable acts and to allow the people of Belarus the freedom and democracy they deserve. 

At the end of the ministerial session, Germany handed over the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers to Hungary. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó presented the priorities of his country’s chairmanship for the next six months.