Leaders meet in Iceland for rare Council of Europe summit

European leaders travelled to Iceland yesterday for a two-day summit meant to show their support for Ukraine but also send a powerful message on core democratic values many feel are under threat in and outside Europe.

In only the fourth summit of the Council of Europe (CoE) since it was founded after World War 2, the 46 members of the leading human rights body, which is entirely separate from the EU, will gather to discuss emerging threats as the war in Ukraine rages on.

“The Council of Europe is often underestimated in its importance,” Frank Schwabe, a German legislator who was closely involved in the planning of the summit, said.

The CoE’s democratic values are upheld by the Strasbourgbased European Court of Human Rights, where citizens can take governments to court over human rights violations. Russia’s membership was suspended the day after it invaded Ukraine in February last year.

Moscow then left the watchdog hours before a vote to expel it.

“The summit will also be about saying what happens if you don’t respect the rules,” Schwabe said.

“The threat of expulsion is already a sharp sword.

“Even Russia didn’t want to leave the Council of Europe, Turkey doesn’t want to leave either.”

Turkey, which is in the middle of a presidential election fought by President Tayyip Erdogan, faces removal from the CoE after it failed to implement a 2019 court ruling to release jailed businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala.

The CoE’s committee of ministers has launched infringement proceedings against

Ankara that have so far stressed dialogue but could eventually see Turkey’s removal or its membership suspended, experts say.

European leaders such as Germany’s Olaf Scholz, Britain’s Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron will attend the summit in Reykjavik, while Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky will address his counterparts via video link.

Icelandic organisers said the meeting would be an opportunity to support Ukraine through concrete measures as well as to boost initiatives to address emerging threats to democracy, including from climate change and artificial intelligence.

Macron’s office said the council was looking at how its little-known bank, the Council of Europe Development Bank, or CEB, could help meet the needs of struggling Ukrainians.

Meanwhile, Sunak would use the meeting to urge other leaders to stop the humanitarian disaster caused by illegal immigration, his office said.

He will also sign Britain up to the CoE’s newly established Register of Damages, a mechanism to record and document evidence and claims of damage, loss or injury incurred as a result of the Russian invasion. —