Germany in the Council of Europe

Reichstag mit deutscher Fahne Enlarge image (© Quelle: Bundesbildstelle)

In 1950 Germany acceded as 14th of today's 47 member states to the Council of Europe.

The activities of the Council of Europe concentrate on the core issues of promotion and protection of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. For historic reasons (the Council was founded before the European Union) the Council of Europe also provides benchmarks in numerous other fields like social and health policy, culture, education, youth, sport and even environmental protection and prevention of cybercrime.

Germany actively supports the focus of the Council of Europe on its core competencies: establishing and strengthening of democratic societies, developing the rule of law and implementing effective protection of human rights, particularly in the younger democracies of south-east Europe and the Caucasus.

The German Permanent Representation to the CoE

How Germany is represented in the Council of Europe

The highest decision making body of the Council of Europe is the Committee of Ministers, where Germany is represented by the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Committee meets annually in May, i...

How Germany is represented in the CoE

Partial agreements

Germany is participating in 10 out of a total of 15 partial agreements of the CoE. Partial agreements are a particular form of co-operation of some or all member states. In most cases, these can be jo...

Partial agreements

Pile of bills

Budget of the Council of Europe

The overall budget of the CoE consists of the ordinary budget (about 240 million Euro in 2012), the individual budgets of the partial agreements and the voluntary contributions. Together with France, ...

Budget of the CoE

Germany in the CoE

Human Rights

European Court of Human Rights

On 5 December 1952 Germany ratified the European Convention on Human Rights, the core instrument of international law. Compliance with this convention is monitored by the European Court of Human Right...

Human Rights

Council of Europe treaties

CoE treaties

Out of currently 210 CoE treaties Germany has ratified 120 and signed a further 46. The latest instrument ratified by Germany in July 2011 was the Protocol amending the European Convention on the Supp...

Council of Europe treaties