Another Globe Is Desired

If you pay 33 million euros, you're not an aggressor anymore.

"Europe doesn't owe us anything". I hear these words so often from acquaintances and strangers, from readers and officials, from compatriots of the present and the past and I repeat these words. Indeed, why does Europe owe us anything if we failed to make a difference? What do we actually expect from Europe - NATO troops marching towards Drazdy under white-red-white flags?

However, the triumphant return of the Russian delegation to the PACE this week made me realise one thing and reconsider it. The show, of course, was horrible: debates, the voting, and the joyful comments of "bunny" Slutski on "Europe has finally realised that it cannot do without Russia", and his nomination as PACE vice president. The reaction of the Ukrainian delegation, which suspended its membership in the Assembly, was principled and correct. Unfortunately, this is the only thing that Ukrainians could do in response. It is like a hunger strike in prison - the only legal way to protest. So will anyone say again that "Europe does not owe anything"?

The thing is that it does. An abstract Europe - a continent, a part of the world map, a group of peoples inhabiting it - does not, as well as Antarctica. But international organizations that exist in Europe does owe. All of them were created not as hobby groups, so gather in companies from time to time to have a beer somewhere in Brussels, Strasbourg or Geneva. Each of these organizations has its own responsibilities and tasks, its own staff, its own secretariats, which ensure their functioning. All of the States that are members of these organizations contribute to these responsibilities from their own budgets. Of course, there is also a common goal: security, well-being and respect for the rights of all Europeans.

The only European structure that was created for the sake of human rights and the rule of law in each country is the Council of Europe. After the horrible Second World War, after Winston Churchill's calls for the creation of the United States of Europe, this was one of the first actions of the "never again" algorithm. Even the headquarters was established in Strasbourg, in Alsace, on the very land that had been changing hands for many years, as a symbol of pan-European reconciliation for the end of wars and territorial invasions. And the first thing the Council of Europe did - even then, at the end of the forties - was to develop and adopt the European Convention on Human Rights. Every state is obliged to sign and ratify it upon accession. And every citizen of the Council of Europe member state whose rights have been violated has the right to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

By the way, the Russian federal budget has a separate article - reparations under decisions of the ECtHR. Usually, these are reparations for illegal criminal prosecution. Only Belarusians have no right to appeal to the European Court, as Belarus is still not in the Council of Europe. Well, it's not about us now. Europe does not owe us anything. Do you still think so? What about Ukraine at war?

Ironically, 70 years after its establishment, the Council of Europe welcomes back the Russian delegation, whose powers were suspended after the annexation of Crimea, to the Parliamentary Assembly. State Secretary of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Europe Amélie de Montchalin, speaking at the PACE session, said that several journalists had been released, which meant that the Russian justice system was moving in the right direction. However, Ms. de Montchalin humbly omitted the fact that the whole of Moscow was standing for him, while the other journalist had his 15-day administrative arrest over.

However, she understands everything. Like those who explained that war was not a violation of human rights and fell behind competence of the Council of Europe. This is, of course, a threat to security, so let the OSCE, or the UN or NATO, deal with it in accordance with their mandate. Everything is fine here in terms of human rights. But the contribution should be paid, or else Russia's unpaid contributions - and that's 33 million euros a year - have caused a budget crisis in the Council of Europe, and dozens of round tables and seminars have remained unheld. It has caused devastating damage to European democracy and human rights.

In general, "war is peace", just like in a book of one writer first published three days after the signing of the Statute of the Council of Europe. In that writer's time, however, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle and Willie Brandt still lived and worked. And now we cannot boast of new Churchill, de Gaulle or Brandt anymore. It's great that at least William Gates was born, and today we can see the broadcasts of these shameful meetings and find out who and how voted, not from tomorrow's newspapers.

However, Christos Pourgourides, Special Rapporteur on Enforced Disappearances in Belarus, and Lord Judd, Rapporteur on Chechnya, also worked in PACE. 118 people voted for the restoration of the Russian delegation, while 62 people voted against. That is, a third of PACE is still decent people. So a piece of hope that European organizations can turn to the principles and values they declare remains. All the more mankind has not yet come up with anything better. However, sometimes another globe is desired.

Iryna Khalip, especially for Charter97.org

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