11-Б

 Тема  Council of Europe and European Union

1.  Answer the questions of exercise 1 page 235

  2.Read about the Council of Europe and do ex. 2 a), p. 235 - name the main 5 areas of its activity

  The Council of Europe is an international organization promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. It was founded in 1949, has 47 member states with some 800 million citizens, and is an entirely separate body from the European Union (EU), which has only 27 member states. Unlike the EU, the Council of Europe cannot make binding laws. The two do however share certain symbols such as the flag of Europe. The Council of Europe has nothing to do with either the Council of the European Union or the European Council, which are both EU bodies.

  The best known bodies of the Council of Europe are the European Court of Human Rights, which enforces the European Convention on Human Rights, and the European Pharmacopoeia Commission, which sets the quality standards for pharmaceutical products in Europe. The Council of Europe work has resulted in standards, charters and conventions to facilitate cooperation between European countries.

  Its statutory institutions are the Committee of Ministers comprising the foreign ministers of each member state, the Parliamentary Assembly composed of MPs from the parliament of each member state, and the Secretary General heading the secretariat of the Council of Europe. The Commissioner for Human Rights is an independent institution within the Council of Europe, mandated to promote awareness of and respect for human rights in the member states.

  The headquarters of the Council of Europe are in Strasbourg, France, with English and French as its two official languages. The Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Congress also use German, Italian, and Russian for some of their work.

  While the member states of the European Union transfer national legislative and executive powers to the European Commission and the European Parliament in specific areas under European Community law, Council of Europe member states maintain their sovereignty but commit themselves through conventions (i.e., public international law) and co-operate on the basis of common values and common political decisions. Those conventions and decisions are developed by the member states working together at the Council of Europe, whereas secondary European Community law is set by the organs of the European Union. Both organizations function as concentric circles around the common foundations for European integration, with the Council of Europe being the geographically wider circle. The European Union could be seen as the smaller circle with a much higher level of integration through the transfer of powers from the national to the EU level. Being part of public international law, Council of Europe conventions could also be opened for signature to non-member states thus facilitating equal co-operation with countries outside Europe.

  The Council of Europe’s most famous achievement is the European Convention on Human Rights, which was adopted in 1950 following a report by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly. The Convention created the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The Court supervises compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights and thus functions as the highest European court for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It is to this court that Europeans can bring cases if they believe that a member country has violated their fundamental rights.

3.Do exercise 2 b) page 235- copy and complete the table

 

TEST:

Choose the correct answers (you can find the answers in the Internet)

1.The Council of Europe has been working to build a Europe United on the basis of ...

a) freedom and democracy

b) human duties 

c) the absence of law

2. The Council was set up by .

a)10 west European states

b) 10 east European states.

c) 10 west Asian states.

3. The Committee of Ministers comprises the foreign ministers of the ...

a) 34 members states

b) 44 members states

c) 54 members states

4. The Minister's Deputies meet ...

a) every month.

b) twice a month.

c) every week.

5. The Committee of Ministers DOESN'T serve as a permanent forum of discuss ...

a) European co-operation.

b) common political problems.

c) financial support.

6. The Parliamentary Assembly comprises ... representatives. 

a) 339

b) 249

c) 239

7. The Parliamentary Assembly meets in full session ... times a year. 

a) 4

b) 14

c) 12

8. The Parliamentary Assembly has created a "special guest" scheme to welcome representatives of  ...

a) non-member states from central and eastern Europe 

b) non-member states from central and eastern America

c) non-member states from central and eastern Africa

9. There have been adopted over ... European conventions. 

a) 155

b) 145

c) 165

10. The activities carried out in the Council of Europe affect ...

a) all our lives.

b) somebody's lives.

c) nobody's lives.

11. The European Flag was chosen by the Council of Europe in ...

a) 1945

b) 1955

c) 1965

12. Europe Day is celebrated on ... .

a) 5 May

b) 9 May

c) 15 March

Homework

Learn by heart new words and word combinations on pages 235 and 237

 

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