INGOs Conference of the Council of Europe

Palace of Europe
Palais de l'Europe
Council of Europe main building with flags of member States
General information
Location	Strasbourg, France

The INGO (international non-governmental organisations) Conference is the body representing civil society in the Council of Europe, a European organisation founded in 1949. The Council of Europe has 47 member States with some 800 million citizens and its seat is in Strasbourg, France.

The INGO Conference of the Council of Europe is a space for free and innovative participation of committed citizens, offering the possibility to contribute directly to the construction of Europe. It is the only assembly of NGOs playing an institutional role in an international intergovernmental organization.

As the President of the Committee of Ministers, Micheline Calmy-Rey, put it on 25 January 2010 addressing the Parliamentary Assembly: “The Council of Europe is playing an irreplaceable role in the building of a single Europe. Its intergovernmental co-operation method is enriched by a prominent parliamentary dimension – so well represented by your Assembly – as well as by a regional and local dimension in the form of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, not forgetting civil society, represented through the Conference of International Non-Governmental Organisations. Thus, the huge diversity of our continent is represented within a single institution. No organisation can claim to be more representative of all Europeans.”

At its 8th session, in May 1951, the Committee of Ministers stated that it “may, on behalf of the Council of Europe, make suitable arrangements for consultation with international non-governmental Organisations which deal with matters that are within the competence of the Council of Europe” (Resolution (51) 30Fe). In October 1972 it adopted the “Rules for Consultative Status” for INGOs (Resolution (72) 35).