Between 2012 and 2022, the leadership of Director Verena Taylor led to the development and progress of the country-specific cooperation dimension of the Council of Europe. While cooperation and assistance had existed before, her determined effort to streamline, programme and coordinate as well as implement through country offices, made all the difference.
Verena Taylor used her firm belief in and detailed knowledge of the Organisations’ values and standards to shape this work and raise the funds to finance the “third sector”, complementing standard setting and monitoring.
Cooperation with the European Union and voluntary contributions from Member States increased steadily to up to €70 mllion p.a., demonstrating the value attached to this sector of the Organisation. This work helped member States to improve their protection of citizens regarding human rights, justice, corruption, violence against women and domestic violence, and other topics.
With a background in NGO and youth work, Verena Taylor joined the Council of Europe in 1989, a year of tectonic political changes in Europe. In the youth directorate, she was immediately and deeply involved in supporting democratic youth NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe. This included having some 30 young people from these countries spending Christmas with her family, a fantastic and emotional time.
Leaving the Organisation in 2022, Verena walked from Strasbourg to Vienna with her dog. She now volunteers to support Ukrainian displaced persons.
The project “75 women in 75 years of Council of Europe history” is organised by the Delegation of the European Union to the Council of Europe with the Council of Europe and the Permanent Representations of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
