The Council of Europe, responsible for protecting human rights in its member states, is 75 years old. Foreign Minister Baerbock feels deep gratitude.
75 years after the founding of the Council of Europe, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for the defense of the values of the first major European post-war organization. “Our European way of life, the values of our Council of Europe, they are being challenged like never before since the end of the Cold War,” said the Green politician in a Bundestag debate in Berlin on the 75th anniversary of the organization’s founding.
Also against the background of the assassination attempt on Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, she added: “As European democrats, we will defend our European democracy.”
The Foreign Minister said she feels deep gratitude for the anniversary. Germany has “grown up as a democracy in Europe and through Europe.” In the afternoon, Baerbock wants to give a speech at a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France.
The Council of Europe, founded in 1949, is responsible, together with the European Court of Justice, for protecting human rights in its member states. It is not an organ of the European Union. The 46 members include all EU countries, but also Great Britain and Turkey. He is therefore responsible for 680 million Europeans – from Greenland to Azerbaijan.
Baerbock: Threat from outside and inside
Baerbock said that the values of the Council of Europe were threatened “from outside by autocrats like (Russian President) Vladimir Putin, who brought the war of conquest back to Europe, but also from within with hatred and a return of the nationalistic.” Journalists are being imprisoned, courts are being manipulated, and so-called strangers are being persecuted. We see again and again “how hate turns into violence and how it can affect anyone.”
The Foreign Minister particularly emphasized the importance of the European Court of Human Rights, before which almost 700 million people could sue for their civil liberties against their own state. When the Court was established in 1959, “it was a revolution” because it reflected a new understanding of the relationship between the state and the individual: “That every person has the same rights, regardless of gender, origin or religion.”
Source: Stern
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