School of democracy

“I think that the most successful initiative in this last semester of the Council of Europe was the major conference on interfaith dialogue, held in our country at the end of April”, said FIORENZO STOLFI , Foreign Minister of San Marino, expressing his satisfaction for the work performed over the last six months. On Friday 11 May, after six months chairing the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, he passed the chair to the government of Serbia. The political representative of the ancient Republic of San Martino reviewed the achievements during his six months Presidency in an exclusive interview with Sir Europe. Minister, let us begin with interfaith dialogue, which was significantly placed at the top of the agenda during San Marino’s Presidency. Why? “The question of the religious dimension in the dialogue between cultures was a priority for us because today there is an absolute need to promote dialogue between the leaders of the religious communities, to create mutual understanding and foster peaceful relations in Europe and in the world. And this dialogue must involve all believers and the whole of European society. Peace and dialogue are not constructed from above. As far as the conference promoted in April is concerned, I can tell you it was no easy thing to organize; we had to be extremely cautious and use all the diplomacy in our power. But in the end the result was excellent, so much so that the Council of Europe has decided to make this an annual event”. The Memorandum of understanding between the Council of Europe and the European Union was signed in Strasbourg on 11 May: what is its significance? “The document will permit us to define with greater precision the fields of competence of these two important organizations, to avoid wasteful duplications of role. It has to be recognized that we each set out from very different positions, but finally reached a positive result. For example, the Council of Europe has and shall retain pre-eminence at the level of the defence of human rights, which has always been its special field of concern. The EU, instead, takes precedence for crucial issues in the economic and social fields, as sanctioned by the EU Treaties. What’s important is that collaboration between us should be reinforced and bear fruit in terms of real benefits for citizens and for the stability and development of the continent”. Sometimes citizens wonder whether two supranational organizations are really necessary in Europe. Are they? “It’s a more than understandable question. That’s why it’s so important to define and separate their specific roles and respective competences. The importance of the Council of Europe should especially be underlined in this phase. With the accession of Montenegro last September, it now has 47 member countries, whereas the EU only has 27. That means that the Palais de l’Europe (headquarters of the CE in Strasbourg) now represents 47 European states that decide to work together to support the values of democracy and the rule of law and to protect human rights in every corner of the continent. The CE devotes attention to all this, and also to the question of European culture and identity, dialogue between the local and regional authorities, between the religious communities, between the NGOs active in various sectors… I would say, in brief, that thanks to the CE many countries now practice democracy. The Council of Europe is a real school of democracy, a means of rapprochement with the EU itself, as was the case with the most recent accessions”. The priorities of the semester of San Marino also included the reform of the European Court of Human Rights. What results did you achieve? “We know very well that the Court risks collapse due to the huge mountain of recourses and the growing backlog of cases: there are now over 90,000 pending cases. The Council of Europe recognized the need to intervene. On this point we pursued the debate in Strasbourg, but efforts to address this problem need to continue”. San Marino took over the revolving Presidency of the CE from the Russian Federation last November. A rather curious passage of office from the largest to one of the smallest country in Europe: how do you sum up this experience? “At times small countries succeed in obtaining better results on the international scene because they can move more freely; they have less vested interests and positions to defend. Therefore they are regarded with less suspicion. That was our case. These six months put to the test our political skills and organizational capacity; at the same time they permitted us to forge relations at the highest level in Europe and in the international organizations. From this we derived a real injection of confidence. And I cannot deny I received flattering testimonials from various member countries of the CE. Now we would like to host other international events and perhaps peace conferences and the like. We enjoy neutrality and are thus able to reconcile different positions and thus help, in our own small way, to foster peace”.