Against this background, Sweden sees its work at the CoE as part of the common EU foreign and security policy. For this reason, Sweden tries to enhance the EU’s role within the Council of Europe and to further cooperation between the two organisations. This cooperation, however, must not undermine each member state’s individual responsibility to comply with the obligations that come with a CoE membership.
Some of the CoE’s cooperation programmes are carried out together with and partially financed by the European Commission. In general, the cooperation between the CoE and the EU intensifies with more and more areas of activity of both organisations converging. In order to avoid unnecessary duplication and rivalry, it also seems important to use in an efficient way the possibilities for cooperation with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations (UN).