On Monday 14 September, the Secretary General met Clément Beaune, French State Secretary for European Affairs.
During this first meeting, they discussed the Council of Europe’s role in helping its member states to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic effectively and to learn a number of lessons from the crisis while at the same time fully drawing on the Organisation’s standards in the fields of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
They also discussed co-operation between the Council of Europe and the European Union, its main strategic partner. Mr Beaune reiterated France’s full political support for the Council of Europe, and said that, as the host state, it would continue to focus particular attention on the conditions for hosting the European institutions in Strasbourg.
