Controversy has erupted in some Central and East European circles following the recent publication of an interview in an Alsatian newspaper ("Les dernieres Nouvelles d'Alsace," 26 June 1997) with the Council of Europe's outgoing number-two man. Deputy Secretary-General Peter Leuprecht told the daily he was taking early retirement this month in protest at what he called a lowering of the Council's human-rights standards for its new Central and East European members. Leuprecht characterized those once rigid Council standards as "soft" for Eastern members.

Leuprecht is the first Council official to say in public what many in the Council of Europe Secretariat have said in private for years. The majority of Council officials clearly believe that, under pressure from West European member states like France and Germany, the 40-state organization has granted membership too fast and uncritically to many of the 16 former communist nations that have joined over the past seven years.

Leuprecht told the Alsatian newspaper that he has always considered the Council of Europe to be a "community of democratic values." But he argued that in recent years, Council officials' references to democracy and human rights have become a "ritual." The organization, he continued, enlarged too fast and paid the price in the dilution of its values. "Some admissions [to the Council] stick in my throat," he remarked.

Leuprecht mentioned only one such admission by name: Croatia, the newest Council member state, having joined some eight months ago. He described a recent meeting of the Council's Committee of Ministers (the body's chief policy- and decision-making organ) at which Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic argued at length that his country is a model democracy that fully respects human and minority rights. Leuprecht recounted: "None of the ministers present said a word. Not even one said, 'What do you take us for, idiots?' There was only a soft, soggy consensus."

But in a second interview, which he gave to Bosnia's independent TV-International station one day later, Leuprecht did name other Eastern European member states, notably Romania and Russia. He said that the Council began "to go soft" four years ago, when it admitted Romania, which, he said, was still far from meeting the organization's human-rights standards at that time. He was careful to add, however, that Romania has made significant democratic progress since it became a member. As for Russia, which was admitted in early 1996, Leuprecht dismissed that country's human-rights record as even further removed from Council standards.

Those standards were established nearly a half-century ago when, in 1949, the Council of Europe was created to promote democracy, the rule of law, and human rights across the continent. Until the collapse of European communism in 1989, the organization largely languished in Strasbourg without much clout. But soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Council--then with only 21 members, all from Western Europe--began to expand its membership to include Central and Eastern European countries. Eventually, it became the only multilateral body on the Continent with what it calls a "pan-European vocation."

Now that he has bared his soul in public, the Austrian-born Leuprecht has become the object of controversy--not so much in the Secretariat, which largely agrees with him, as in Central and East European member states. According to one Council official who requested anonymity, Romanian Foreign Minister Adrian Severin--himself a long-time human-rights activist and former member of the Council's Parliamentary Assembly--telephoned Secretary-General Daniel Tarschys to complain about Leuprecht's candor. The official said Severin was worried that Romania's candidacy for both NATO and the EU might be affected by Leuprecht's remarks. Tarschys reportedly replied that Leuprecht was no longer a Council of Europe staff member and therefore could say whatever he liked to whomever he liked. According to some diplomats in Strasbourg, both Russian and Croatian officials have also made known to the Council their countries' displeasure over Leuprecht's remarks.

Neither Tarschys nor any other high Council official has yet commented publicly on the controversy. But within the Secretariat, there is reported to be real pleasure that Leuprecht has voiced many staffers' views. A high official of the Council's human-rights division told RFE/RL that the Council "was simply overwhelmed by human- and minority-rights violations in several Eastern member states." The official mentioned Slovakia and Ukraine as well as Russia and Croatia as among the regular violators of Council standards. As for Albania, the official added, "it's impossible to keep track of anarchy."

Now that Leuprecht has spoken out, the Council of Europe can expect a lot more criticism from outside observers. By letting the wind out of the Council's human-rights sails, he has paved the way for what will doubtless be a very public and heated debate.

HISTORIC NATO SUMMIT OPENS IN MADRID. Leaders of the 16 NATO countries are taking part in a historic summit in Madrid on expanding into Eastern and Central Europe. Opening the summit on 8 July, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana called the meeting a "defining moment" for the alliance, saying it will be remembered as the time when "North America and Europe came together to shape the course of a new century." The NATO leaders are scheduled to issue invitations to between three and five Central and Eastern European countries to join the alliance. The U.S. has backed first-wave inclusion of only Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has strongly backed the U.S. argument that NATO's eastward expansion should be limited to just three countries, RFE/RL correspondents in Madrid report. But France and Italy also want to invite Romania and Slovenia. French President Jacques Chirac, addressing fellow NATO leaders at the summit, said NATO could damage its cohesion by refusing to include Romania and Slovenia as new members in the first wave of expansion. NATO is also to sign an agreement on a special relationship with Ukraine at the summit.

UKRAINE CANCELS PLAN FOR LAND EXERCISES WITH NATO. The Defense Ministry announced on 7 July that Ukraine has decided not to hold land exercises with NATO on the Crimean peninsula in August. A ministry spokesman told journalists that the military decided to move the exercises elsewhere because Crimea lacks the necessary infrastructure. A spokesman for the U.S. Sixth Fleet confirmed that the U.S. has agreed to the change. He said he was unaware of the reason for the switch. Pro-Russian groups in Crimea have recently been protesting against the plan to hold land exercises there. The U.S. Sixth Fleet and other NATO navies will still carry out sea maneuvers off the Crimean coast in an operation code-named "Sea Breeze."

UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT ON TREATY WITH RUSSIA. Leonid Kuchma told journalists in Kyiv on 7 July that there will be problems with the ratification of the Ukrainian-Russian basic treaty in the Ukrainian parliament. Kuchma said there are many forces in the parliament that will be seeking to "score points" over the issue. He noted that the treaty between the two countries, signed by Kuchma and Russian President Boris Yeltsin at the end of May, would have been criticized both in Russia and Ukraine regardless of its contents. He argued the chief task regarding current bilateral relations is to "lift trade restrictions."

ROMANIAN SENATE RATIFIES TREATY WITH UKRAINE. By a vote of 65 to 50 with three abstentions, the Romanian Senate on 7 July ratified the treaty with Ukraine signed by the two country's presidents in early June, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. The Chamber of Deputies had approved the treaty on 26 June; the document must now be promulgated by the two countries' presidents. The three opposition parties voted against the approval. In other news, dozens were hurt in southern Romania when a passenger train left tracks that had buckled in the sun following a long heat wave.