Engaging with Europe after Brexit: Time to reset the UK’s relationship with the Council of Europe

The article analyses the UK’s relationship with the Council of Europe. Traditionally, a strong supporter of the Strasbourg mechanisms, relations in recent years have been decidedly rocky. Nevertheless, the article argues that in the post-Brexit era, the time is ripe for the UK to reset its relationship with the Council of Europe and reclaim the moral and political leadership that it once showed.
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The UK’s relationship with the Council of Europe presents a paradox. In many ways, the UK is an exemplar within this organisation of 47 states. The UK’s own human rights record is comparatively strong: the Court finds violations in only a handful of UK cases annually (on average, six per year since 2010), and, with the notable exception of prisoner voting, those judgments are complied with. Yet, this record is clouded by the negative and sometimes intemperate discourse surrounding the UK’s relationship with Strasbourg; indeed, no mature democracy has done more to destabilise the Council of Europe in recent years than the UK. In the post-Brexit era, the time is ripe for the UK to reset its relationship with the Council of Europe and reclaim the moral and political leadership that it once showed. The UK’s relinquishing of its formerly exemplary role is not only corrosive of the organisation and its values, but also weakens the UK’s ability to use the Council of Europe as an alternative forum within which to engage with 46 other European member states—including those within strategically important geopolitical regions such as the former Soviet states and Turkey. The organisation’s inter-governmental arm, the Committee of Ministers, as well as the Court and the Parliamentary Assembly, each provide opportunities to further the UK’s foreign policy objectives of strengthening national and international security and supporting the development of open societies.