Hungary, amongst the Central and Eastern European region was first to become full member of the Council of Europe directly after the change of regime. In 1999, Hungary held the Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for the first time. During our first presidency, we offered the Hungarian Revolution Flag to the Council as presidency gift.
During this period the Council of Europe had 40 members, since then it has grown to 47 member states, which can be seen as a significant expansion of the organization’s operational framework and tasks over the past 20 years.