The Council of Europe, the oldest political organization on the European continent, is holding its two-day third summit meeting in the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland,on Monday and Tuesday. Leaders from 46 member states of the 56-year-old organization will be present at the summit.

The Council of Europe was founded on May 5, 1949 and now it groups together 46 countries, including 21 countries from Central and Eastern Europe. It has granted observer status to the Holy See,the United States, Canada, Japan and Mexico.

The Council of Europe is headquartered in Strasbourg in northeastern France with the aim being to achieve a greater unity between its members by affirming common values and interests.

It was set up to defend human rights, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law; develop continent-wide agreements to standardize member countries' social and legal practices; and promote awareness of a European identity based on shared values and cutting across different cultures.

Since 1989, its main aim has experienced a shift to acting as apolitical anchor and human rights watchdog, assisting the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in carrying out and consolidating political, legal and constitutional reform in parallel with economic reform; and providing know-how in areas such as human rights, local democracy, education, culture and the environment.

So far the Council of Europe has held two summit meetings, one in Vienna in October 1993 and the other in Strasbourg in October 1997. The present summit meeting is designed to reaffirm the core values on which Europe is built, define the political mandate of the organization and chart its action for the coming years.

The main component parts of the Council of Europe are: the Committee of Ministers composed of the 46 foreign ministers or their Strasbourg-based deputies as the organization's decision-making body; the Parliamentary Assembly grouping 630 members from the 46 national parliaments; and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities composed of a Chamber of Local Authorities and a Chamber of Regions. The organization has a 1800-strong secretariat headed since September 2004 by Secretary General TerryDavis from Britain.

So far the Council of Europe has passed 196 legally binding European treaties or conventions many of which are open to non-member states on topics ranging from human rights to the fight against organized crime and from the prevention of torture to dataprotection or cultural co-operation.

The Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Council of Europe member states hold the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers on a rotating basis, each for a six-month term. Alphabetical order in the English language is followed. It is at the organization's seatin Strasbourg that the outgoing Chairman hands over to his or her successor. Poland has been holding the rotating presidency since November 2004.

Source: Xinhua