An Assembly for Europe: The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, 1948-1989.

• Author: Long, David
• Position: Parliamentary Book Shelf - Book review

An Assembly for Europe: The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, 1948-1989, by Bruno Hailer, Council of Europe Publishing, 2006.

This book by a former Secretary General tells the story of the origins and growth of the first pan-European assembly of parliamentarians. It is a book for popular consumption, a book for the uninitiated. As a Council of Europe publication, it takes an over(t)ly rosy view of the institution's development and present status. Though billed as a book about the assembly, it actually focuses a lot on the Council of Europe as a whole as well as events in Europe more generally. The author also cannot forebear from numerous references to the post-Cold War era, despite the stated intention for there to be a second volume considering this period.

The book notes that the creation of the Council of Europe and the significance of the assembly came among the immediate post-war aspirations for greater integration in Europe. These hopes were soon dashed in the intergovernmental stalement of the Council of Europe, though they promptly reappeared in the European Coal and Steel Community and subsequently the European Economic Community). While the author lauds the various achievements of the Council of Europe, particularly the European Covenant and Court of Human Rights, as well as encouragement of cooperation on cultural issues, human rights, youth, and science and technology, there is no hiding the disappointment that the bigger European project never really took off, at least not as the integrationist founders of the Council of Europe had hoped.

Though it is now called the Parliamentary Assembly, it is still functionally a consultative framework. The title parliamentary is an indication of its membership, not its powers, which are limited whether one is thinking of either oversight or control. Though you won't find the argument here, the innovation of other institutions in Europe is at least an implicit...