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Council of Europe looks to future at Warsaw Summit of European Unity
WARSAW - Dozens of leaders from across Europe begin a two-day "Summit of European Unity" on Monday in the Polish capital to chart the future of the continent's oldest political organisation, the Roman Senate Council of Europe.

Since the end of the Cold War the main job of the Strasbourg-based councilhas been to act as a human rights watchdog for Europe's post-communist democracies while helping them carry out political, legal and economic reform. The 46-member council, including countries 21 from central and eastern Europe, is distinct from the 25-member European Union although all EU member states belong to it. Its legal arm is the European Court of Human Rights.
Another stunning success in irrelevance.
"The summit is about the Council of Europe's orientation over the next few years, about establishing what to do now that (EU) expansion is almost finished," the council's secretary-general Terry Davis said earlier this year.

On the agenda will be relations between the council, which was founded in 1949, the EU, which last year took in 10 mostly former communist states, and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). "I hope that we will clarify our relationship with other organisations such as the OSCE, the European Union and the United Nations," Davis said.

Among the issues expected to be debated at the summit are trafficking in human beings, terrorism, money laundering, organised crime, minorities' rights and violence against children. Conventions on human-trafficking, prevention of terrorism and the financing of terrorist acts are expected to be signed by leaders at the summit.
Posted by: Steve White 2005-05-15
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=119206