First of all, let's recall what the European Council is - it is not a regional, mechanical union of European countries. It is the unity of those countries, which have put the question of human rights protection in order and where the civil society exists or is being actively built. In this connection, last year the Russian ombudsman Sergei Kovalyov had the courage to ask the Eurocouncil not to receive his country in this union, as it did not deserve it. Though he lost his job for it, he showed an enviable example of civil principles.

The main ideal of the Eurocouncil is to realize the united European cultural identity and protect pluralistic democracy, as its component, and finally to create a united Europe. At the same time, it controls and evaluates human rights state in a country more strictly than the UN or OSCE. Thus, the interest in this organization is a serious political application, and I support it, though I am afraid that if this object is not achieved soon, it is inevitable that this enthusiasm will be extinguished.

There exists an opinion that as soon as capital punishment is abolished, it will, to say figurally, become possible to fix a regular air-route between Tbilisi and Strasbourg. I am afraid to say that it is not exactly so: though protocol 6 adopted in 1983 by the European Council demands abolition of capital punishment in peace-time, due public opinion, some countries of the Eurocouncil have not signed the protocol yet. Abolition of capital punishment itself is the supreme stage, it is the final work of a country in the field of human rights; as for us, we do everything backwards: we have not even begun seriously to teach the population an alphabet of human rights.

It remains to be seen whether the official abolition of capital punishment by the Parliament will be enough, or, as the experts fear (coming out of our public consciousness and based on the events of 1992-93), we shall receive illegal punishment by Lynch law, which will considerably increase the possibility of punishing innocent persons. The abolition od capital punishment is especially unpopular among law.enforsment officials, so it is necessary to adopt a Law which will enable human rights NGOs to enter and examine police cells. Thus, it is not enough only to secure a parliamentary quorum for abolition of capital punishment. We should cultivate the respect of human rights among the population and law enforcement bodies.

Paragraph 3 of the European Council's regulations gives three indispensable conditions: existence of real pluralistic democracy, sovereignty of law, and possession of human rights and freedoms by all those persons, who are under the jurisdiction of the country. As soon as these conditions are satisfied, a country will become a member of this union.

We have adopted the Constitution, chapters of which concerning human rights, correspond to international standards, though we should not forget that the Stalin Constitution also was very strong on paper. It would be interesting to know what has been done to acquaint people with the Constitution, to make them believe in the existence of their rights, and to begin the principal stage of building civil society, i.e. civil education. It would be interesting to know whether it should be done only at the request of the Eurocouncil.

The Eurocouncil has adopted a "Social Charter," which gives the guarantees of social rights protection. I wonder, how, lets say, our medical reform will look in the framework of this high European standards, and what amount of work the Eurocommission on Human Rights will receive from our population, as each citizen of any Eurocouncil-member state can apply to it in the case of the violations of his rights. Moreover, according to protocol 11, which will come into force soon, citizens will be able to apply to the European Court For Human Rights.

The Eurocouncil has also adopted the "European Charter of Regional and Local Self government". A congress of the heads of regional and local self-governments of these countries is summoned annually under its aegis. But is based on democratic principle - only those persons, who are elected by people, can participate in it, so our local officials cwill not be allowed to attend it!.

There is one aspect, where we have conformed to the recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Eurocouncil, which demands creation of the post of Ombudsman for settling specific problems of human rights. On May 16 our parliament adopted a law on human rights guarantor, "Public Defender" (Ombudsman). But a nominee, who was put forward by the President, was not approved.

More than three months have passed, but the parliament has not returned to this question (election of an ombudsman), though according to paragraph 5 of article 6 of the law, elections should have been held not late than 14 days since the first attempt. MPs are often dissatisfied with the fact that their laws are not implemented - it would be interesting to know why they do not implement the law adopted by themselves. There is one ironical moment here: according to international law "an ombudsman is elected by the parliament and entrusted to control implementation of laws adopted in the field of human rights".

At the same time, it is obvious, that no post will be discussed so thoroughly by international organizations and, first of all, by the Eurocouncil, as that of Ombudsman. That's why Mps should stand above the narrow-party interests and personal sympathy-antipathy and elect a nominee according to the criteria of international practice.

It should be added here, that the delay of this procedure can not be justified, and ignoring this law results only in discreditation of theParliament.

I have spoken about some moments here, which prove that before thinking about becoming a member of the Eurocouncil, the Parliament has to do a great amount of work. Thus, in order to build civil society it is not necessary only to adopt laws; they should also be implemented. Both these aspects are hindered by the Soviet mentality, which still dominates in our country.

Still the future struggle for Europe is not at all without hope. Nobody has the right to give up, since joining the union of European free countries for Georgia would mean the end of that five-century cycle, which began in 1453 with fall of Constantipole, when we appeared isolated from Europe.

For the last two centuries we have gotten acquainted with European culture only by means of the North, and it was only a substitute for European culture, since Russia itself, in the opinion of many Europeans, is considered to be Europe only conditionally.

For the present, when people think only about their survival, nobody thinks of culture, and pirate video-production arrives from Russia as the substitute of culture. This production is specially produced in the USA for backward countries and is rarely seen in the USA (and especially - in Europe).

At the same time, the Southern door has opened for our everyday necessities, and Georgians are getting acquainted with the brandnames of great European firms only through substitutes, produced in Turkey, since originals are available only for the elite. Moreover, Georgian dealers import stale foodstuffs from Turkey and thus our population receives cheap substitutes of European production.

The same thing happens in politics: We had the Lenin-Stalinist version or Russian substitute of one of the European ideologies - Socialism. Then we started to build democracy "in a Russian way". As soon as Russia leaves the Caucasus, Georgia may fall under Turkey's political influence. This is especially undesirable, as recently by Amnesty International were reported the facts of systematic and mass violations of human rights by Turkey, especially concerning ethnic minorities. So, the possible variant of development here is only a substitute of European democracy.

That's why we should discuss the question of Georgia's integration in the family of European states in all seriousness, and then we shall not have to deal with different substitutes of ideas and products. All other politics will remain as vanity of vanities and Georgia will once again lose its chance.