This was underlined at a recent meeting in Salonika when members of

This was underlined at a recent meeting in Salonika, when members of the council's parliamentary assembly took the virtually unprecedented step of warning an applicant country, Croatia, to improve its human rights performance if it wanted full membership. "Our main objective is to promote the core values of pluralist democracy," the council's Secretary-General, Daniel Tarschys of Sweden, told the Independent "There must be certain minimal conditions to be fulfilled. He has just moved into a small flat with plenty of his mates "It's a shithouse," he says "But it's better than what I had in England.". Even supporters of the Council of Europe would admit that many people, particularly in western Europe, have never heard of it, or have only a hazy idea of what it does. Yet almost 50 years after its foundation in 1949, the Strasbourg-based institution, whose task is the promotion of human rights and democracy across Europe, is acquiring more weight than perhaps at any time in its history. One could even say it is becoming somewhat controversial. "One of my friends is on the run because he beat up a subcontractor," says Paul, who concluded long ago that the only sensible response to such adversity was to "pack your bags and move on".But there are some who cannot cope with penury, and take to shoplifting, the bottle, or worse.

"There's a small number who can't handle Berlin, and they get fucked up with booze and drugs," says Kevin.Yet, despite the difficulties, Kevin has no intention of going home, and Paul is settling in nicely. "Six weeks I worked and they didn't give me any money."Kevin estimates he is owed DM6,000, money he will never recover from the crooks who prey on foreigners. Their victims, illegal or semi-legal workers, are in no position to sue.More time-honoured traditions for settling scores in the building trade are also inadvisable. Finding a job was easy enough: the Irish pubs act as an informal labour exchange, with vacancies advertised by word of mouth It did not work out "First job I was here I got ripped off," he says. Paul, another Scottish carpenter arrived here six months ago. Unable to find work at home, he came to Berlin, where his mates assured him the roads were paved with gold.

The German man is not good enough to do the amount of work I do."Whatever their relative merits, it is true a unionised German worker would not do Kevin's 50-hour week and, when the temperature dropped to -15 degrees last winter, the Germans did not emerge from the canteen.Driven from home by unemployment or low wages, the foreign workers must abide by the rules of the game: no paid holidays, no sick leave, no social security, and not even a guarantee that they will get paid at the end of the week. Without foreign workers, the cost overruns would be huge, and Kevin thinks the native workers would not be up to the task. "In the Communist regime it took four people to do one man's job," he says "This is still East Germany. "And some have said to me: 'We must take matters into our own hands when no one else is prepared to help us.' "Help will not be forthcoming in a hurry. Too much prestige and too many vested interests are attached to the soon-to-be-restored capital being completed by 1999 at the prices tendered. IG Bau, the building workers' union, had only just agreed to a tiny pay rise in return for the minimum wage, and is now dropping dark hints of conflict between foreigners and Germans on the sites."My colleagues are absolutely furious," said Klaus Wiesehugel, leader of IG Bau.