Next week, the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee votes on a report on the EU’s role on the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). This comes at an embarrassing moment. The UN has been mocked for spending €18 million on a colourful ceiling for the HRC chamber in Geneva. But the European Union faces bigger problems than weird decorations.

The HRC is a testing-ground for the EU’s commitment to effective multilateralism. It was launched in 2006 with European support in spite American objections that its rules did not exclude human rights abusers.  EU members had tried to promote such rules, but their efforts were misconceived or mishandled.  The U.S. currently boycotts the HRC.

Some European diplomats wish they could stay away too.  The EU and its allies on human rights are typically stuck in a minority …