The Council of Europe is going through difficult times, and this international association should be returned to its original tenets, the new Secretary-General, Marija Pejconovic Buric said after she assumed office in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

In her speech, this former Croatian foreign and European affairs minister said that this organisation, which was established 70 years ago, should renew its aim.

In this context she recalled the Article 1 of the organisation’s statute, which rads that “the aim of the Council of Europe is to achieve a greater unity between its Members for the purpose of safeguarding and realising the ideals and principles which are their common heritage and facilitating their economic and social progress.”

This aim shall be pursued by dialogue, she added.

During my five-year term I would like to work on raising awareness of why we need this pan-European organisation, she said.

The new Secretary-General said that the Council was going through difficult times marked by xenophobia and discrimination which should be combated.

She said that one of her priorities is to enhance the dialogue between the CoE member-states and bodies of this Strasbourg-based organisation.

She also pledged to work on raising the visibility of the organisation in the times of new technologies.

The Council of Europe was established in 1949 as an international organisation whose aim is to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. It now has the 47 member-states.