Piliayev I. Democratizing dimension of the European integration: the Council of Europe's role functions and system influences.

The thesis offers the first in Ukraine integral political study of the Council of Europe - the basic institution and a leading subject of the pan-European integration. The author sets himself as an object to investigate the Council's position and role in the continental integration by understanding the Organization as an evolving Europe-scale institutional system with the inter-state decision-making mechanism. Through exploring a wide range of academic sources, official documents, archival materials the common political , legal and culture-civilizational space formation within the Council of Europe as well as the Organization's active impact on the European political architecture is substantiated. In Chapter one the author analyses the evolution of internationalization in the European context since the Vienna Congress of 1815 up to the genesis and development of the pan-European movement, investigates the latter's ideology and political achievements, makes the fundamental overview and an attemptof conceptual synthesis of existing Eurointegration and civilization theories (West-European ones as well as typical to the East-Christian and Eurasian macroregions) with the purpose of perceiving the nature and certain confederative trends of the modern pan-European process. Particular attention is given to the basic civilizational significance for Europe of common values of pluralist democracy, market economy, the rule of law and respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms. In Chapter two the author analyses the complex historical context of the Council of Europe's birth as a result of geopolitical and ideological struggle and compromises, the Organization's transformation in the late eighties - the early nineties of the last century into "a coach in democracy" for all countries of the Central and Eastern Europe; all the principal levels of co-operation within the CE's framework - intergovernmental, interparliamentary, regional, local and the non-governmental ones - are studied. A special attention is paid to the analysis of the institutional mechanism of interaction between the Council of Europe and the civil society as the guarantee against the institutional absolutism and the bureaucratic integration models imposing, as the pledge of honouring national interests of all the parties concerned. The interdisciplinary approach enabled the author to supplement the analysis of political mechanisms and instruments of the the CE's many-sided activities with the complex investigation of the Organization's legal system. The per subject analysis of the CE political monitoring in its dynamic change, that of implementing the pan-European mechanism of minorities protection under the CE aegis as well as the investigation of reasons and adaptation prospects for existing lacunae (or "lawless zones") in the pan-European political and legal space are also conducted. Chapter III focuses on the analysis of istitutional forms and mechanisms of co-operation and political relationship between the Council of Europe and the European Union, Western European Union and the OSCE, their functional correlation, in particular from the viewpoint of delimiting their spheres of action and achieving complementarity.In Chapter IV by means of the CE's and the EU's institutional records comparative analysis in the pan-European context a prospect and a concrete mechanism of the aforementioned institutions potential integration are suggested and argued. The CE's role in the present and future continental political architecture are covered against the background of the European and global actors interaction and strengthening trends towards forming a multi-polar world. Cogent political and economic arguments in favour of a pan-European perspective as an alternative to a new split of the Continent are produced. The Council of Europe's pivotal role in building the Greater Europe of democracy and human rights is grounded. On the basis of the conducted research a vision of the Council of Europe as the institutional and legal foundation of the pan-European integration and - in perspective - forming of a pan-European confederation is put forward and substantiated. The thesis is of practical use for diplomats, parliamentarians, governmental and independent political experts, professors, students and post-graduates, all those interested in problems and prospects of building the Single Europe.