” ” "The Council of Europe and the European Union are two different, separate organisations", which cooperate with each other. The EU Commission deemed it fit to explain this difference following the publication of some articles on the Italian newspapers today (about the Hammarberg report on immigration in Italy) which still mix up the CoE and the EU. "The current European Union explains the EU Commission was born with the European Community for Coal and Steel in 1951 and after that with the European Economic Community in 1957". The Maastricht Treaty (1992) established the EU, which "aims at achieving closer and closer integration among the current 27 member states". The EU’s responsibilities "are much wider than those of the Council of Europe and the legislation produced by the EU institutions is directly applicable to the legal systems of the member states". The CoE, instead, was established in 1949, now has 47 member states; "its aims are the protection of human rights, the support of democratic stability, the development of the European cultural identity, the search for solutions to several social problems, such as the discrimination of minorities, xenophobia, the abuse of children. The Hammarberg report the press referred to today must be looked at from this perspective".
