MEMBERSHIP IN THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE:
EVOLUTION OF CRITERIA
TATYANA ANTSUPOVA
PhD, Associate Professor at the European Union and Comparative Law Department, National University "Odessa Law Academy", Ukraine
The paper is devoted to a study of the evolution of membership criteria in the Council of Europe since the creation of the Organisation until today. The author analyses the basic legal provisions of the Statute related to the criteria for membership in the Council of Europe. Consequently, two main criteria for membership have been identified: one is geographical, the other is political. After the collapse of the socialist camp, the enlargement policy of the Council of Europe needed a very clear concept. And this compromise concept, after lengthy discussions, was presented by the PACE Recommendation 1247 (1994) on the enlargement of the Council of Europe, adopted on October 4, 1994. The author notes that the geographical criterion of membership in the Council of Europe was finally defined in 1994, and the enlargement of the Council of Europe is, probably, finished. But the political criteria set out in Art. 3 of the Statute have been supplemented by specific legal conditions for membership and their fulfilment is a difficult challenge for a number of States until the present time.
