The Council of Europe, although often confused with the European Council, is not an institution of the European Union, but an international intergovernmental organisation. In reality, the Council of Europe is an international organisation that has legal personality recognised by international law and whose main objective is the defence of human rights, democratic development and political and social stability in Europe for around 820 million people in 47 Member States, including the Member States of the European Union. It is important to note that states wishing to join the Council of Europe must also ratify the European Convention on Human Rights, also known as the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. We therefore restate that the Council of Europe is the driving force behind European Union legislation, to the extent that the European Union gets much of its legislative inspiration from the legal instruments that the Council of Europe has adopted to enshrine, promote, and protect the most fundamental human rights.