Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: International Organisations, grade: 2, 7, http://www.uni-jena.de/, course: Introduction to International Relations and European Studies , language: English, abstract: In the following text, the author is concerned with the origins of the Council of Europe and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Causes for their appearance, their process of working and their achievements will be dwelled.

The Council of Europe is the continent's oldest political organisation, it was founded in 1949 by ten countries: Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, accompanied by Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. It is distinct from the EU, so it is no body of the European Union. Nevertheless, no country has joined the Union without first belonging to the Council of Europe.

After the frights of the Second World War, it was a goal to develop Europe again, to reconcile with one another and to create the framework for better living conditions (Holtz, p. 52). Winston Churchill was the first statesman who remarked the idea of a common Europe, in a speech in September 1946: "We must build a kind of United States of Europe"(http://www.coe.int/T/E/Com/About_Coe/DiscoursChurchill.asp), he said in a speech. Ironically, Churchill did not think of his own country, Great Britain, to join such a new confederation of states, but only the countries of the European continent.

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