Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (French: "Comité des ministres du Conseil de l'Europe") or commonly the Committee of Ministers (French: "Comité des ministres") is the Council of Europe's decision-making body. It comprises the Foreign Affairs Ministers of all the member states, or their permanent diplomatic representatives in Strasbourg. It is both a governmental body, where national approaches to problems facing European society can be discussed on an equal footing, and a collective forum, where Europe-wide responses to such challenges are formulated. In collaboration with the Parliamentary Assembly, it
Member states of the Council of Europe president Nursultan Nazarbayev in Astana in 2008. In December 2013, a Joint Declaration on enhancing cooperation between Kazakhstan and the Council of Europe in 2014–15, was signed with the purpose of paving the way for Kazakhstan's accession to the Council of Europe's multiple conventions in the field of criminal justice. Hashim Thaçi, Kosovo's Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated in December 2014 that an application for membership of the Council of Europe was planned to be filed within the first quarter of 2015. Observer status was designed for non-European democracies willing to contribute to democratic transitions in Europe. Canada, Japan, Mexico,