Justice Minister Calls for Strengthening CoE
Justice Minister Judit Varga on Monday called for strengthening the role of the Council of Europe (CoE), saying that the European Union “should not be allowed to overshadow” the organisation’s mandate.
Addressing a meeting of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Varga noted that Hungary will take over the rotating six-month presidency of the CoE’s Committee of Ministers later this month.
The minister said the principle that the council’s member states should be united in their values and ideas was just as valid today as it had been at the time of the founding of the organisation 70 years ago. However, diversity and national sovereignty are equally important, Varga said, arguing that the council’s member states differed in their legal, cultural and historical traditions.