Promote and develop a European cultural identity with emphasis on education.The actual areas of concern are human rights, health, education, culture, youth, sport, the environment, local democracy, heritage, legal cooperation, bioethics, animal welfare, and regional planning. Today, the Council of Europe has 45 member states, including about 800 million people.The Council of Europe must be distinguished from the European Union, which was set up in 1957 as the European Economic Community. First, it is not a supranational institution like the European Community. It does not have legislative power.

The Council of Europe is Europe's oldest and largest intergovernmental organisation. It promotes human rights, democracy and the rule of law since 1949.

Its member states are cooperating on a voluntary basis. The Council of Europe cannot impose any rule on its member states. Second, unlike the European Union, the Council of Europe is not an economic organization.The geographical confines of the Council of Europe are larger than the membership of the EU.

The EU has 15 member states: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. All of these countries are also member states of the Council of Europe. Next to these member states, however, the Council of Europe also includes 30 other European countries: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Romania, the Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, Slovakia, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

Nba 2k16 ps4. THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE: HOW DOES IT WORK?The headquarters of the Council of Europe, Le Palais de l'Europe, is situated in Strasbourg, France. The Committee of Ministers is the decision-making body of the Council of Europe. It is composed of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the member states. This body officially adopts Conventions, Resolutions, Agreements, and Recommendations. The Committee of Ministers also ensures that the conventions and agreements are implemented. In addition, there are two other institutions: (1) The Parliamentary Assembly is the organization's deliberative body, the members of which are appointed by national parliaments. (2) The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe is a consultative body that represents local and regional authorities.

Governments, national parliaments, and local and regional authorities are thus represented separately at the Council of Europe level.The main tools of the Council of Europe to achieve its objectives are the following legal instruments:. Conventions or treaties concluded between states. The member states are not legally obliged to sign a Convention, although they may be expected to do so since under the Council of Europe's Statute, they have undertaken to “collaborate sincerely and effectively in the realization of the aim of the Council.” Nonetheless, there are different ways a member can deal with a Convention.

It may choose to ignore the Convention as being not relevant or not applicable to the national situation. By taking that position, a member is not obliged to comply with its provisions. A member can sign the Convention, thus recognizing the value and existence of the Convention. After having signed a Convention, a member is still not obliged to comply with the provisions of the Convention.

However, once a state has signed and ratified (i.e., its Parliament has approved the instrument) and the Convention has become effective, the state will be morally and legally bound under international law to implement the Convention. Thus, the state has become a Party to that Convention and must ensure that the provisions will be respected on its territory. Most Council of Europe Conventions are not directly applicable within a member state; they are not “self-executing.” The most common way for a state to implement them is to enact appropriate national legislation or to adapt its existing domestic law to make it correspond to the rules in the Convention.In contrast to the European Union, practically spoken, there is little legal enforcement of Conventions, which probably leads to variability in compliance. Some Conventions are also open for adoption by nonmember states. The Conventions and recommendations are drafted by governmental experts responsible to the Committee of Ministers, thereby providing for the interaction of political interests with technical considerations. They only have a legal status after they are adopted by the Committee of Ministers.More than 350 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are granted a consultative status.

Within the context of the Council of Europe, there are several consultation arrangements, which enable NGOs to participate in intergovernmental activities and encourage dialogue. These NGOs are a vital link to the public at large and to specific parts of society.

On pet animals (ETS 125, 1987).All of these Conventions are based on the principle that “for his own well-being, man may, and sometimes must, make use of animals, but that he has a moral obligation to ensure, within reasonable limits, that the animal's health and welfare are in each case not unnecessarily put at risk.”These Conventions were the first international legal instruments to establish ethical principles for the use and handling of animals. They are the result of very lengthy research, discussions, and negotiations, undertaken by governmental experts, delegates from animal welfare organizations, scientific researchers, and representatives of professional associations directly concerned.

They are therefore the results of compromises. The political and technical value of the legal instruments working method adopted in the framework of these activities is based on the close collaboration between representatives of all the governmental and nongovernmental organizations that are involved. They have been used as a basis for, and continue to influence, all of the national relevant legislation in Europe.

THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE AND THE PROTECTION OF LABORATORY ANIMALSAs early as 1971, the parliamentary assembly recognized that to protect animals against abusive and unnecessary experimentations certain norms should be established at an international level, to enable states to regulate such experiments in an harmonious way in their domestic law. A first draft of the Convention was elaborated by the Ad Hoc Committee of Experts on the Protection of Animals, the CAHPA. After lengthy discussions, the Convention was finally adopted in May 1985. The Convention is accompanied by an explanatory report, and attached to it are technical appendices. Presents guidelines for the accommodation and care of animals. Existing German and US guidelines were used as a basis. Unlike the provisions of the Convention itself, the guidelines in are not mandatory; they are recommendations.

These guidelines are based on knowledge of that time and good practice. Explains and supplements the principles on accommodation and care as adopted in article 5 of the Convention. Contains tables for the presentation of the statistical data on the use of animals for experimental and other scientific purposes. The object of the Appendix is thus to help authorities, institutions, and individuals in their pursuit of the aims of the Council of Europe in this matter.The European Convention for the protection of vertebrate animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes (1986, ETS 123) includes provisions concerning the scope, care, and accommodation of the animals, conduct of experiments, humane killing, authorization procedures, acquisition of animals, control of breeding or supplying and user establishments, education and training, and statistical information. It is clearly visible from several provisions that the 3Rs of Russell and Burch are used as a basis for the Convention.Currently, 15 countries have signed and ratified ETS 123 and thus are Parties to the Convention: Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the European Community. The Convention is signed by Bulgaria, Ireland, Portugal, Slovenia, and Turkey. The Convention provides for Multilateral Consultations of the Parties at least every 5 years, to examine the application of the Convention and the advisability of revising it or extending any of its provisions according to changes of circumstances and new scientific evidence.

The Multilateral Consultations are prepared by a Working Party. For their work, the Parties have invited other member states of the Council of Europe and nonmember states and cooperate very closely with nongovernmental organizations that represent the fields concerned. Appropriate stimuli and materials. It was recognized that guidelines could never replace close and regular observations of the animals involved to ensure that the enrichment initiatives do not have adverse effects for groups or individuals.Taking into account the evolution of scientific knowledge and changing circumstances, the Parties realized that the technical Appendices might need to be adapted more frequently than its main provisions.

However, because these Appendices are an integral part of the Convention, such adaptations could result in complicated amendment procedures. Therefore, a Protocol of Amendment (ETS 170) providing for a simplified procedure for the amendment of the technical Appendices to the Convention was drafted and opened for signature in June 1998. Thus, the Parties are able to amend the technical Appendices, without formal adoption by the Committee of Ministers.The finalized documents must be formally adopted at the 4th Multilateral Consultation. Thereafter they will be submitted to the Committee of Ministers. The text of the Convention and the related documents, such as resolutions adopted by the Committee of Ministers, as well as the draft proposals for the revision of the Appendix on which the discussion is finalized and the finalized background documents, are available on the website of the Council of Europe.The work that has been done at the Council of Europe in the area of laboratory animal welfare was based on a very fruitful cooperation between member states and observers of various organizations. To be more effective, it will be very important that the cooperation between the European Union and the Council of Europe is intensified and that cooperation with other international umbrella organizations is developed further.