May 2021 marks the 10th anniversary of the opening for signature of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention). On this occasion, a dedicated website has been launched to share innovative content, up-to-date information and new publications on the contribution the Istanbul Convention is making in advancing the right of women and girls to live free from violence. A key component are the testimonies from professionals, women’s rights activists and others whose work is inspired by the Convention – featured in a quote-of-the-day section. Information on the virtual conference  taking place on the day of the anniversary, 11 May 2021, is already available. This key event can be followed live without registration.

Let’s join forces around the Istanbul Convention!

Ann Linde, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, visited the Council of Europe on 28 April 2021. She met with Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić to discuss co-operation between the two organisations.

Her agenda also included a visit to the European Youth Centre to host a roundtable on youth participation in legislative and policy processes, chaired by Alice Bergholtz, Advisory Council representative. Youth policy has been a permanent theme on the OSCE agenda for several years now. Ahead of the visit, Ann Linde said: “Young people must have the power to shape their own lives and have an influence on the development of society. They have the right to be heard and their opinions must be taken into account. Their contribution to the work of the Council of Europe and the OSCE is important and valuable”.

It is not Ann Linde’s first time inside the European Youth Centre. From 1984 to 1988, she was Secretary General of LSU, the National Youth Council of Sweden, and in this capacity was a member of the Advisory Council on Youth set up by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers and made up of representatives of youth NGOs and networks. Later, as Ann Linde worked for the government, from 1991-1993 she represented Sweden on the European Steering Committee for Youth, composed of ministries and bodies responsible for youth issues of the Council of Europe member states. So, the minister has been active on both sides of the Council of Europe youth sector’s ground-breaking co-management system.

The Director General of Democracy participated in the Conference on Human Rights and Democracy on 5 May, organised by the City of Kristiansand in co-operation with the Council of Europe. This event was followed by a Roundtable discussion on 6 May on the Freedom of Expression of the Arts and Culture in the Digital Era, organised by Cultiva Foundation, and attended by German and Norwegian State Secretaries, joining experts in the field to discuss how culture and the arts can keep democracy alive. The Roundtable provided also an opportunity to preview the new exhibition platform for the digital exhibition “Free to Create, Create to be Free” and featured several artistic performances.

As a part of the activities of its Anti-Doping Convention ([email protected]), the Council of Europe in partnership with the European Commission, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Partnership for Clean Competition (PCC), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) established a Social Science Research (SSR) Collaboration Platform - an informal “community of practice” for international organisations that fund or support SSR in sport integrity matters. Its focus is to share best practices and raise the visibility of SSR to increase its usability and, ultimately, its impact on the sporting system. The organisations involved engage to share experiences using their collective insights to improve the benefits of SSR, including reducing duplication of research and importantly, improving the way in which SSR is disseminated, understood and adopted by stakeholders in the field of sport.

 While each of the organisations involved in the SSR Collaboration Platform has its own specific research priorities, the overarching research themes that capture all of the organisations’ common interests are:

• Athlete welfare/well-being
• Sport integrity
• Values-based education
• Sport governance
• Effectiveness of education
• Equality and inclusion in sport
• Athlete environment/influences on behavior
• Impact of technology on sport integrity

 The Council of Europe and its partners are confident that the SSR Collaboration Platform will have a positive impact on the sporting system and welcomes requests to join the Platform from other international and regional organisations that have a role in funding or supporting SSR in sport (including private organisations).

A conference entitled “Ending trafficking in children and young persons: together, towards a future without child trafficking in Europe" took place on 4-5 May 2021, in the framework of the German Presidency of the Committee of Ministers. High-level keynote speakers, including the Secretary General of the CoE and the State Secretary of the German Ministry of the Interior, experts and panellists will deliver key messages and discuss recent trends in the trafficking and exploitation of children and young persons. Three workshops will be dedicated to discussions on

• the exploitation of children and young persons through the Internet
• strengthening child and young persons’ testimonies
• the exploitation of children and young persons by family structures.

The Council of Europe Drafting committee on migrant women (GEC-MIG) held its fourth meeting via videoconference on 27 and 28 April 2021. GEC-MIG, a subordinate body to the Gender Equality Commission (GEC), is tasked by the Committee of Ministers to draft a Recommendation on migrant and refugee women and girls.  Topics such as arrival, residence, integration, socio-cultural and political participation, family reunion and returns were discussed during the meeting. The GEC-MIG will hold its final meeting at the end of September 2021. The text of the draft Recommendation will then be forwarded to the Gender Equality Commission for discussion and adoption at its November 2021 plenary meeting.

In May the Campaign “12 months, 1 question” of the World Forum for Democracy discusses the context of violence against environmental defenders, the seeming impunity of many perpetrators of this violence and looks into ways of better protecting them. Addressing the climate crisis requires the participation of all levels of society: individuals and governments as well as private sector. The risk of climate breakdown very soon requires urgent action; however, the necessary structural changes are happening at a slow pace. Some brave individuals have been stepping up and joining the frontlines of this fight for our environment – risking their wellbeing and even their lives. Global Witness reported that 212 land and environmental defenders were killed in 2019 – an average of more than four people a week. The journalists, activists, local communities, indigenous peoples etc who stood up against big industries, corrupt officials or public apathy are putting themselves at enormous risk, on behalf of us all.

 More information :  Forum Mondial de la démocratie : campagne « 12 mois, 1 Question »

On 29 April 2021, a webinar organised in the context of the World Forum for Democracy explored how innovative urban planning can help cities address environmental concerns while delivering better governance, in line with the Council of Europe 12 Principles of Good Democratic Governance.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left public authorities at all levels facing an emergency unprecedented in both scale and scope and has exposed weaknesses in governance models. It has also served as a wake-up call: the well-being of humanity depends on the health of the environment. Metropolitan areas are at the forefront of the impending environmental disaster as they account for almost 70% of global carbon emissions and more than 60% of resource use.

The concept of the “15-Minute City” first emerged in 2016 and has been receiving increasingly visibility in recent months, also due to limitations to mobility that have been introduced in member States to keep the pandemic under control. Offering access to key everyday services and functions within 15 minutes of where people live, the “15-Minute City” can help tackle environmental challenges and contribute to better social well-being, protection of biodiversity and preservation of natural resources, and the promotion of a responsible economy.

Speakers included Carine Rolland, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of Culture and the “15 Minute City”, Venla Bernelius, Assistant Professor of Urban Geography, University of Helsinki, and Tamás Dömötör, Chief Government Adviser on Urban Planning in the Prime Minister’s Office of Hungary.

The Conference of INGOs (CINGO) elected its new President and Standing Committee at its General Assembly on 28 April. 

Gerhard ERMISHER (Civilscape) takes over the reins from Anna RURKA and will lead the CINGO for the next three years. Gerhard is no stranger to the Council of Europe, has been the CINGO representative to the CDDG for several years and has established close co-operation with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, in particular the joint work on the revision of the Code of good practice for civil participation in the decision-making process.

Geneviève LALOY (Comenius Association) and Christoph SPRENG (Initiatives of Change – International) were elected to the two posts of Vice-President.  Together with the 8 elected members of the Standing Committee, the new leadership of the CINGO forms a young, dynamic and truly European team.  Work will start immediately to implement the new rules of procedure, draft a 3-year strategic action plan and set up committees in priority fields.   

-             Ruth ALLEN (International Federation of Social Workers – Europe),

-             Rares CRAIUT (The European Confederation of Youth Clubs),

-             Simon MATTHIJSSEN (The European Ombudsman Institute),

-             Goran MILETIC (Civil Rights Defenders),

-             Olga SADOWSKAYA (World Organisation against Torture),

-             Piotr SADOWSKI (Volonteurope),

-             Anna SEVORTIAN (EU-Russia Civil Society Forum),

-             Beata ZWIERZYNSKA (The European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers)

The Covid-19 pandemic has created monumental challenges for the public administration but also opportunities. On 27 April 2021, a hybrid conference organised by the Serbian National Academy for Public Administration (NAPA) with the support of the joint EU-Council of Europe Programme Human Resources Management in Local Self-Governments – phase 2 offered a platform for government representatives, public administrations, local authorities and other stakeholders to reflect on the lessons learnt and identify the way forward.

Dejan Miletić, acting Director of the NAPA, presented how the Academy had managed a successful transition to new working methods. "In order to successfully continue reforming the public administration, we need to encourage civil servants to develop professionally and provide them with training programs that will be available through one click on a computer or mobile phone applications", said Mr Miletić, announcing that the next step for NAPA was to develop mobile phone applications for training, together with other digital tools.

Addressing the event by video message, Snežana Samardžić Marković, Director General of Democracy of the Council of Europe, recalled that the crisis had raised expectations amongst citizens that the greater responsiveness and accessibility of the public administration would be maintained even in the aftermath of the current emergency and confirmed the Council of Europe’s availability to support the efforts undertaken by Serbia to deliver better governance and develop a more professional civil service.

CEB Award for Social Cohesion 2021 attracts significant interest

The second edition of the CEB Award for Social Cohesion received 114 eligible applications from 27 member countries, a 30% increase compared to the pilot launch in 2020.  Many of the nominated projects address pressing social issues in the field of healthcare, while there is also a strong focus on promoting gender equality and the wellbeing of persons with disabilities.   The shortlist will be announced on 25 May. An international Jury of experts will award the €25,000 prize to one of those fives projects that makes a significant contribution to social cohesion in an innovative and effective way. 

EIB commits additional funding to the CEB’s Migrant and Refugee Fund

The European Investment Bank agreed to make a €250 000 additional contribution to the CEB’s Migrant and Refugee Fund (MRF) to support the improvement of living conditions in refugee camps and centres of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The contribution will finance non-food items and operating expenses as well as essential services, in particular for refugees in the Lipa camp. It will complement EU-funded humanitarian assistance for refugees and migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On 19-21 April 2021, the Intercultural Cities programme organised the “Academy on alternative narratives and intercultural communication”. This is a training course for staff in charge of communication in ICC member cities, aiming to bridge the gap between policies and communication, to get useful skills on positive narrative creation, as well as knowledge on the principles of inclusive communication and storytelling. It also offers a chance to build alliances and common understanding between practitioners working on intercultural policies implementation and communicators who should voice the intercultural transformation of the cities. Under the notion “what story does your city tell?” the Academy examined which narratives work and why, how to tell the intercultural story, what to consider to ensure cities’ communication is inclusive as well as what to do when faced with negative stories in our daily life. In the coming weeks, materials relating to the topic of intercultural communication and alternative narratives will be published on the ICC web. In addition, a training course will be published for ICC members.

On 29 and 30 April 2021 the World Forum for Democracy published video statements by the Mayors of the cities of Erlangen and Vinnytsia, collected by the ICC programme as a contribution to their April campaign on Environmental action at local level.

The world of European football was plunged into turmoil on 18 April 2021, with the announcement that a European Super League (ESL) was being established, which would essentially rival the UEFA Champions League. The new Super League would be a competition between 20 top clubs, comprised of 15 founders and 5 annual qualifiers. Controversially, 12 European elite clubs declared their intention to take part as founders of this breakaway competition, which resulted in almost universal opposition from fans, players, managers, politicians, other clubs, as well as FIFA, UEFA and some national governments. Under the ESL rules, the 15 founding teams in the competition would not face qualification or relegation, and it was widely criticised that this would devalue the game because it was unfair and in breach of the openness in sports competitions.

Concerned by these developments, the Council of Europe Deputy Secretary General Bjørn Berge wrote a letter to the Chair of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS), Alexandre Husting, in which he asked the Governing Board to hold an urgent exchange with the sports movement “to address the possible implications of such an unfortunate initiative and how the future European Sports Charter would safeguard a value-driven sport”.

In his reply to the Deputy Secretary General, Mr Husting reminded the shared commitment of CoE Member States to the principle of autonomy of the sport movement in Europe as well as the strong commitment of European countries to freedom of association and economic freedoms. However, he recognized that in the light of the current draft of the revised European Sports Charter, the prospect of a European Super League of Football would, among others, undermine the financial solidarity from top sport to grassroots sports, threaten the consistent implementation of sport integrity regulations, and show disregard for social dialogue (with players, unions and with key stakeholders such as fans).

Mr Husting confirmed that this issue will indeed be discussed at the next joint meeting of the EPAS Governing Board and Consultative Committee, due to take place online on 15-16 June 2021.

On 29-30 April 2021, the Council of Europe held its 11th Dialogue Meeting with the Roma and Traveller civil society, focusing on the topic of combating antigypsyism.

Almost 50 participants took stock of current issues regarding racism and discrimination against Roma and Travellers in Europe. On behalf of the Committee of Experts on Roma and Traveller Issues (ADI-ROM), Dr Iulius Rostas presented his forthcoming report on the causes, prevalence, and consequences of antigypsyism.

Recent responses by the Council of Europe, its member States’ governments, and civil society organisations were presented and discussed. Based on the analysis of existing initiatives, recommendations were made how to step up national and international efforts to tackle antigyspsyism, including through Joint Programmes with the European Commission.

The conclusions and recommendations emanating from this Dialogue meeting, currently being finalised by the General Rapporteur, will be presented at the 4th meeting of the Committee of Experts on Roma and Taveller Issues (ADI-ROM) in October 2021 for follow-up.

The 12th meeting of the Council of Europe Dialogue with Roma and Traveller civil society, scheduled to take place in Autumn 2021, will focus on teaching the history of Roma and Travellers.

The team of the Bern Convention Secretariat launched a new online campaign, #VoicesofNature, to promote the connection between wildlife and people. The campaign website showcases stories of natural heritage conservation, human rights protection and democratic participation around Europe. It also contributed to and participated in the World Forum for Democracy online forum lab that took place on 22 April. The discussion focused on the importance of local action to conserve nature by implementing local policies, creating sustainable urban planning, or defending biodiversity.

After presenting six proposals for social and sustainable tourism in Europe to the European Parliament in November 2020, the European Network for Sustainable Travel envisages actively contributing to a collective effort to support more resilient, responsible, harmonious and social tourism in line with the new reality caused by the Covid-19 crisis. In parallel, in 2020 Portugal launched a comprehensive action plan for the development of sustainable tourism which foresees the involvement of hotels in reducing energy consumption, a training policy for sustainable tourism actors and the creation of a network of stakeholders contributing to greener tourism in forthcoming years.

Building on these two efforts, the European Network for Sustainable Travel and “Turismo de Portugal”, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of Portugal, the Council of Europe, the European Commission, the European Parliament (TRAN committee), universities and the Faro Convention Network,  organised an e-conference on 21 April entitled “Promoting Sustainable and Social Travel in Europe”, to discuss the future steps in this direction

Further to the successful 3rd European Youth Work Convention, organised online in December 2021 by Germany in the overlap of its presidencies of the Council of the European Union and of the Council of Europe, the Joint Council on Youth has agreed the youth sector has a significant role to play in the implementation of the ensuing European Youth Work Agenda.  A working group of the CMJ, composed of representatives of the youth sector statutory committees and key stakeholders, will meet for the first time in May to discuss that role.

To mark the 70th anniversary of Germany’s membership of the Council of Europe and in view of youth and Roma being a priority of its current Presidency of the Committee of Ministers, Germany has gifted a colourful “Berlin Buddy Bear” to the Council of Europe. The donation is a work of art designed by the graphic, video and action artist Alfred Ullrich, son of a German father and an Austrian Sinti mother and Holocaust survivor.

The Buddy Bear was inaugurated in the garden of the European Youth Centre on 21 April by Ambassador Rolf Mafael, Permanent Representative of Germany to the Council of Europe and Marija Pejčinović Burić, Secretary General of the Council of Europe in the presence of Andreas Nick Chairperson of the German delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly and Frank Schwabe, Chairperson of the Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group to the Parliamentary Assembly.

The Council of Europe and its European Youth Centre are delighted to give a home to Buddy Bear and thank Germany for its symbolic donation. Buddy Bear will extend a warm welcome to the hundreds of young people who come to the European Youth Centre to take part in its activities which foster our values of democracy, human rights and respect for diversity!

In 2020 the Council of Europe Quality Label for Youth Centres network introduced a long-term training strategy, consisting of e-learning phases and residential training sessions organised for educational staff of youth centres in the network.

The main aim of the long-term educational programme is to enhance competences of youth centres’ pedagogical staff for incorporating human rights education in their educational activities and to support youth centres in the network to introduce more strategic educational programmes that will mainstream human rights education.

The first pilot e-learning course ran from August 2020 to February 2021 and was attended by educational staff from 13 youth centres.

 Based on the pilot course experience, an adapted intensive e-learning course has now been developed with the aim to allow more colleagues of quality labelled youth centres to participate. Similarly to the pilot, the intensive training course is a combination of thematic webinars and online modules designed by international experts. The first webinar was held online on 15 April with the attendance of 34 participants from 11 youth centres. The course runs every second week between April and June

The Secretariat continues to evaluate the exceptionally high number of projects before eligible projects are submitted to external drama experts for the second stage of the decision process.

During the 93rd Academy Awards Ceremony which took place on 26 April, the Academy Award for International Feature Film went to ANOTHER ROUND by Thomas Vinterberg, a co-production between Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands supported by Eurimages, the Fund's 10th Academy Award in this category.

On 30 April, the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award of € 20,000 dedicated to documentaries and presented at CPH:FORUM went to the project TATA/FATHER by Lina Vdovîi & Radu Ciorniciuc, to be produced by Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan from the Romanian company Manifest Film.

The ECML delivered its second webinar of 2021 within the series of additional activities focusing on COVID-19 and language education. The future of language education – learning lessons from the pandemic presented preliminary findings from a Europe-wide survey conducted in February 2021 which received over 1,700 responses from language professionals working at different educational levels in 40 countries. As well as highlighting the huge challenges faced by language teachers and learners and the different coping strategies adopted, it also revealed positive signs of change and innovation that offer hope for the future. The webinar was attended ‘live’ by over 500 participants and the recording has since been watched over 2,500 times.

 The ECML resource website A roadmap for schools to support the language(s) of schooling, was launched in English, French and German. The Roadmap represents one of the key outputs of the ECML programme “Languages at the heart of learning” (2016-2019). The very practical set of resources will help schools create more inclusive, more supportive and more language-aware learning environments which are essential to quality education and key to educational success. 

 In the context of the project Resources for assessing the home language competences of migrant pupils, supported by all countries signatory to the European Cultural Convention, a survey was launched on the place of family languages in school curricula for migrant adolescents aged 11-18. The survey has two complementary sections: one for learners themselves and their families, available in Arabic, English, French, German, Persian (Dari/Farsi), Portuguese and Turkish, and another for staff in schools and other educational institutions, available in English, French, German, Hungarian and Portuguese.

Twenty-four experts - national consultants of the project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine” explored the principles and values of the Council of Europe in the field of youth during a five-day training. The activity aimed at preparing the experts for effective and meaningful planning, implementation and evaluation of capacity building activities, support actions and other measures in ten local communities and fourteen youth centres – partners of the Council of Europe project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine”.

During the training the experts discussed the current developments in youth policy and youth work at national and European level together with Maryna Popatenko, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sport in Ukraine, Antje Rothemund, Head of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe, and Olena Lytvynenko, Deputy of the Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine.

Curriculum on capacity-building activities for experts in the field of youth policy, youth work and non-formal education was developed in order to support the experts in applying the Council of Europe’ s standards and approaches in the field of youth.

The project "Youth for democracy in Ukraine" is implemented by the Youth Department of the Council of Europe and the Organisation's Office in Ukraine in the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2018-2022.

Each year the European Youth Foundation (EYF) is committed to visit supported projects, to assess the quality of the projects, to engage with Youth NGOs and further understand the reality of young people in Europe, and in line with its responsibilities towards accountability and transparency.

 As many of the activities have moved online as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EYF has also adapted its visits, using the opportunities created by online sessions to be present in some of them. In coordination with the organising teams, a EYF digital visit normally consists of a presentation on the Foundation and its opportunities, followed by exchanges with team and participants and often an extended stay during part of the programme, which helps create an fuller idea of the project and its implementation.

 The EYF has visited several activities since the start of the pandemic and several are planned until the end of the year.

 In an ongoing effort to ensure independent quality control and facilitate streamlined release of the vaccines to the public, the EDQM OCABR (Official Control Authority Batch Release) network has published new and updated guidelines for pandemic COVID-19 vaccines. Pandemic COVID-19 Vaccine (Non-Replicating Adenovirus-Vectored Vaccine) and Pandemic COVID-19 Vaccine (mRNA Vaccine) guidelines are available in the full version and include an update with the model protocol for manufacturers. To be prepared for future vaccines based on recombinant protein approaches that will potentially receive conditional marketing authorisations in the EU in the next few months, a NEW Pandemic COVID-19 Vaccine (Recombinant Spike protein) guideline containing section 2 only is also available. The availability of the ‘section 2 only’ guidelines, with the list of tests to be performed by Official Medicines Control Laboratories (OMCLs) for OCABR, at an early stage helps to anticipate the launch of the vaccines and allows OMCLs and manufacturers to take the necessary steps for OCABR, thus preventing delays in availability of vaccine batches while still ensuring their quality and safety. As soon as possible, full guidelines including model protocols will be adopted by the network. The guidelines are for use by OMCLs and manufacturers to ensure a codified and smooth process for timely release of these important vaccines.

In 2019, the EDQM and the European Commission organised the International Symposium on Plasma Supply Management. This event – the first of its kind – brought together stakeholders in the blood sector to discuss the increasing use of plasma for fractionation. Participants addressed the matter of increasing the availability of plasma for fractionation in Europe as one of the main strategies for avoiding shortages of the plasma-derived medicinal products that patients with life-threatening diseases need.

After the symposium, a set of recommendations jointly drafted by stakeholder representatives was made available on the EDQM web site. The proceedings of the event, containing all the presentations and summaries of the main topics addressed during the sessions, have now also published by the EDQM. The outcome of the symposium provided an evidence base for the revision of the Guide to the preparation, use and quality assurance of blood components (the Blood Guide, now in its 20th edition) and has contributed to identifying strategies to increase the availability of plasma for fractionation in order to achieve self-sufficiency in Europe.

The proceedings of the International Symposium on Plasma Supply Management can be downloaded from FreePub, the EDQM free publications platform.