Capital of the Europe of democracy and human rights

When the Council of Europe, now consisting of 47 Member States, was created in 1949, the question arose as to which city would be best placed to accommodate this organization responsible for promoting European unity, democracy, human rights and political pluralism. Strasbourg was chosen for the reasons explained by Ernest Bevin, the British Minister of Foreign Affairs: “We were looking for a centre that could both be convenient for all European nations and come to symbolize European unity. Strasbourg was a natural choice. This great city had been witness to such breed of human stupidity that attempted to settle its affairs through war, cruelty, and sheer destruction”.

In total, Strasbourg is home to some twenty European institutions or international cooperation organizations, all situated together in the Wacken, an area in the north-east of the city, where the NATO summit is taking place. Like Geneva and New York, Strasbourg, without being a State capital, is no less an international capital with a strong diplomatic presence (46 embassies, about thirty consulates). Strasbourg is therefore home to:

> the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly, not forgetting the various bodies attached to it:
• the European Court of Human Rights, guardian of humanist values and created almost exactly fifty years ago
• the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, established in 1994 to promote local autonomy
• the European Youth Centre, established in 1972 to educate and inform young people on
• the Council’s pan-European approach
• the European Pharmacopoeia, set up in 1964 to guarantee the quality of medicines and draw up the standards applicable to its member countries
• the European Audiovisual Observatory, which has been gathering and circulating information on the European audiovisual industry since 1992

> the European Parliament, whose members have been elected by direct universal suffrage since 1979. Its codecision powers have extended out by the different treaties and its areas of competence have been widened (the environment, transport, regional development, budget, approval of the appointment of European Commissioners, etc.)

Two other bodies also depend on the European Union:

> The European Ombudsman, arbitrating disputes between citizens and the Community institutions since 1995 > the Schengen Information System (SIS) for police cooperation, adopted by 27 countries including Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, which are not members of the European Union: since 2001 the SIS has consisted of a database providing the authorities of each Member State with alerts on people or objects.

> The Eurocorps, created in 1992 on a Franco-German initiative. Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain later joined its joint command in Strasbourg. Poland recently followed their lead. On 26 February last, the Treaty of Strasbourg, signed five years earlier, came into force, giving the European army corps a legal status and therefore operational autonomy.

> The European Science Foundation, has brought together since 1977 some 77 European organizations from 30 European countries, with the main mission of promoting scientific research, improving European cooperation in this field in conjunction with the Brussels Commission and contributing to the pooling of resources. It coordinates projects, organizes conferences and workshops, networks skills and puts forward prospective investigations.

> The Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine: set up by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, it is the oldest of all the cross-border organizations. It guarantees the freedom of navigation on this river, which represents the busiest waterway in Europe with a total traffic of 300 million tonnes (a volume three times higher than that of the Danube). Bearing in mind that the Rhine flows through or along 6 different countries, its mission is also to guarantee safe navigation and work towards the unification of the Rhine river regulations.

> The Assembly of European Regions: founded in 1985, it constitutes the largest independent network of European regions. No less than 270 of them are represented, from 33 different countries. Its mission consists essentially of promoting the principle of subsidiarity and regional democracy, reinforcing the political influence of the regions with the European institutions and encouraging interregional cooperation in Europe and beyond.

> The Strasbourg Club: in 2003 the City created a federation of 38 metropolitan districts from the Enlargement countries, such as Warsaw, Lodz, Bratislava, Nicosia and Split. The Club endeavours to facilitate the implementation of European technical cooperation programmes and exchanges of competence in a variety of areas (town planning, transport, the environment, social affairs, information technologies). The mayors of the 38 cities meet at least once a year. In October 2008, at one of the meetings, Strasbourg recommended that the objectives of the Club be re-oriented towards good governance and local democracy.

Strasbourg is also a member of several European networks such as Eurocities, which passes on to the Community institutions some of the major preoccupations of the large European cities.

It was within this framework that Strasbourg signed a recent Declaration on climate change. It also recently joined “Cities for children” dedicated to the theme of childhood in the city. All these examples show, should it be necessary to do so, that the impact and actions of Strasbourg far exceed the limits of just the European Union: the city, animated by a pan- European spirit born of its humanist tradition, sees itself as a link with the whole of the continent.

But Strasbourg has also long been resolutely turned towards the wider world. It has been twinned with Boston (United States) and Leicester (United Kingdom) since 1960, Stuttgart (Germany) since 1962, Dresden (Germany) since 1990 and finally with Ramat Gan (Israel) since 1991.
At the same time, the City pursues a policy of decentralized technical cooperation, intended to foster transfers of experiences and know-how towards other cities in the world. Including:

> Jacmel in Haiti, where a project to improve municipal capacities (cleansing management, markets, local taxation) is underway

> Douala in Cameroon, where in a few months’ time a social centre will be inaugurated in an underprivileged neighbourhood

> Fès in Morocco, where a new cooperation project on water sanitation and the training of emergency medical staff was approved in June 2008

> Novgorod in Russia, where a programme of aid for heritage protection and administrative organization has been running since 1997

> Bamako in Mali, where the construction of a tram system is being studied, taking into account Strasbourg’s experience. Finally, a support fund of €15,000 for Strasbourg associations involved in international solidarity projects is granted each year by the City.

Projects supported in this way include the participation in the construction of a school in Peru and the setting up of awareness-raising campaigns on deforestation in Senegal.