INGOs Conference of the Council of Europe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Founded | 1949 |
|---|---|
| Founded at | Strasbourg, France |
| Headquarters | Strasbourg, France |
Region served | Europe, international |
Key people | Gerhard Ermischer (president) |
| Website | www |
The INGO (international non-governmental organisations) Conference is the body representing civil society in the Council of Europe, a European organisation founded in 1949. The Council of Europe has 46 member states with some 700 million citizens and its seat is in Strasbourg, France. The current president is Gerhard Ermischer.[1]
The INGO Conference of the Council of Europe is a space for free and innovative participation of committed citizens, offering the possibility to contribute directly to the construction of Europe. It is the only assembly of NGOs playing an institutional role in an international intergovernmental organization.
First step: Consultative status
At its 8th session, in May 1951, the Committee of Ministers stated that it "may, on behalf of the Council of Europe, make suitable arrangements for consultation with international non-governmental Organisations which deal with matters that are within the competence of the Council of Europe" (Resolution (51) 30Fe). In October 1972, it adopted the "Rules for Consultative Status" for INGOs (Resolution (72) 35).
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe Georg Kahn-Ackermann increased the cooperation with the INGOs and suggested that they should get organised among themselves. This led to establishing in January 1976 the Liaison Committee, a body made up of 17 INGOs elected by the "Plenary Conference of the INGOs enjoying consultative status with the Council of Europe". In 1979, the Committee of Ministers decided to establish, within the Directorate of Political Affairs, a secretariat for the Liaison Committee and to put interpretation and meeting rooms at the disposal of the INGOs. In order to finance the collective work the Liaison Committee set up, in 1995, the association "INGO Service" to receive voluntary financial contributions from INGOs. The Committee of Ministers supported this initiative by contributing 15 000 FF (10’€200 in 2009).
In 1991 the Plenary Conference of INGOs set up "groupings" in order to enable the INGOs to work collectively on specific thematic issues and to reinforce their cooperation with the directions concerned, often allowing for more synergy among them.
In order to make the cooperation with the INGOs more flexible and easy, and at the same time, to strengthen the conditions set for obtaining the consultative status, the Committee of Ministers adopted, in October 1993, a new resolution "on relations between the Council of Europe and the international non-governmental organisations" (Resolution (93) 38).
In October 2001, the Ministers' Deputies decided "to examine possibilities to adapt the Committee of Ministers Resolution (93)38 on relations between the Council of Europe and international non-governmental organisations in order that the Council may take greater advantage of its relations with NGOs in the pursuit of its aims. The Liaison Committee and the Plenary Conference were associated to this work."
Second step: Attribution of the participatory status
On 19 November 2003, the Committee of Ministers changed the consultative status into a participatory status (Resolution Res (2003) 8), "considering that it is indispensable that the rules governing the relations between the Council of Europe and NGOs evolve to reflect the active participation of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) in the Organisation's policy and work programme, and to facilitate INGO participation and access to such bodies as the steering committees and governmental expert committees, and other subsidiary bodies of the Committee of Ministers" and "recognising the important role to be played by the Liaison Committee as the democratically elected representative body of all of the INGOs enjoying participatory status with the Council of Europe, and by the INGO thematic groupings as their collective voice and, thus, of millions of European citizens, working in each of the fields represented by them".
At the same time, the Committee of Ministers created a status of partnership for national NGOs (Resolution (2003) 9). It is one of the priorities of the INGO Conference to enable national and local NGOs to benefit more from the Council of Europe's achievements and to contribute themselves to its work.
Third step: Political recognition
The INGOs enjoying now participatory status adapt the functioning of their bodies and, in January 2005. The Plenary Conference is given the title of "the INGO Conference of the Council of Europe" and adopts its new rules of procedure. The Council of Europe's activity report of the same year states that "this change in the title reflects the political recognition of the INGOs as a partner within the Council of Europe".[2]
At the 3rd Summit of Head of States and governments of the Council of Europe in May 2005 in Warsaw, for the first time, the president of the INGO Conference is invited to take the floor in one's official capacity. In connection with the Summit, the INGO Conference holds an extraordinary meeting in Warsaw University to confirm its determination to support the Council of Europe through its connection to the grass root level, contributing to reduce the gap between politicians' actions and the needs and visions of the citizens.
In December 2005, the Committee of Ministers stipulates that the INGO Conference may delegate its representatives to the steering committees and subordinate bodies, like the Parliamentarian Assembly and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities (Resolution (2005)47). The political recognition is followed by a progressive increase of the operational budget for the activities, organised by of the INGO Conference and the secretariat, and by the reinforcement of the latter. In June 2008, the INGO Conference reforms its organs to adapt further its functioning to the other pillars of the Council of Europe.
