Council of Europe
The Council of Europe was organized as the Hague Congress on May 7, 1948, five years following the liberation of Europe. "States were determined to build up their shattered economies, recover their influence and, above all, ensure that such a tragedy could never happen again ... Winston Churchill was the first to point to the solution, in his speech of 19 September 1946 in Zurich." [1][2]
"According to [Churchill], what was needed was 'a remedy which, as if by miracle, would transform the whole scene and in a few years make all Europe as free and happy as Switzerland is today. We must build a kind of United States of Europe'. Movements of various persuasions, but all dedicated to European unity, were springing up everywhere at the time. All these organisations were to combine to form the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity. Its first act was to organise the Hague Congress, on 7 May 1948, remembered as The Congress of Europe."[3]
Member States
See: Member States.
