The Council of Europe. 60 years of respectful indifference

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60 years after it was created, in spite of numerous achievements of recognized importance and quality, the Council of Europe does not matter much to the eyes of politicians, the media or member States’ population. There are several explanations to this indifference. The most important is that the Council failed to meet the hopes invested in it after the upheavals that followed the fall of the Berlin wall. Governments refused to give it the means that may have genuinely allowed it to help new member in their progress towards democracy. Last but not least, it failed to react with appropriate scale when confronted with grave and massive breaches of human rights. The Parliamentary Assembly could – if so desired – contribute to erase this negative view of the Council of Europe.