Council of Europe

Page 1 of 7

Filter category

Feature post image

For Propaganda Without Disinformation: Draft EU Regulation on Political Advertising

Right now, the EU stands ready to adopt a set of strict rules in yet another area of free expression: political advertising in the online and traditional media. This blog examines the draft proposal made by the Commission, and subsequently adopted by the Council and the Parliament, and how it focuses on stopping disinformation in political advertising, especially when sponsored by alien forces (most likely, Russia). We note that the suggested measures fail to deal with the core problem of disinformation in political speech – propaganda when designed to undermine democracy and unity in the region. Instead, the proposal makes a paper tiger of disinformation itself, failing to understand some of the basic tenants of free speech in Europe. The proposal for a Regulation on the transparency and targeting of political advertising (RPA or Proposal) was published in 2021. Most recently, in December 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted the proposal by the European Commission and agreed upon its general approach for negotiations with the European Parliament, while the latter, on…

Read more

The Gender of Treaty Withdrawal: Lessons from the Istanbul Convention

In the early hours of 20 March 2021 the Turkish Official Gazette announced—in a one sentence statement that offered no explanation—that the President Erdoğan had decided to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, the Council of Europe treaty on preventing and combating violence against women. Two days later, the Communication Directorate of the President offered this justification: “The…

Read more

Setting the Cat amongst Pigeons: Kosovo’s Application for Membership of the Council of Europe

Kosovo is one of the few places in Europe not party to the European Convention on Human Rights due to a legacy conflict with Serbia. Kosovo declared independence in 2008 after a bloody war followed by a period of international administration, but this is strongly disputed by Serbia which claims exclusive sovereignty over the entire territory. The conflict…

Read more

The Council of Europe Convention on Offences relating to Cultural Property eventually enters into force:  A new tool to the arsenal of international criminal law responses to the trafficking of cultural property

In the face of the dramatic events taking place over the last few weeks as a result of the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine, it is hard to trace any positive developments in the field of international law. This being so, taking into account that cultural property is often a target during armed conflicts, either deliberately or as a…

Read more

Europe’s Kairos? The Role of the Council of Europe under a Negotiated Peace in Ukraine

In a seminal speech to the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe in 1954, Germany’s Federal Chancellor and Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, Konrad Adenauer, exhorted member states to respond to matters of common concern with courage and confidence, and insisted that ‘any weakening in our zeal, in our striving to fulfil what we have…

Read more