Brussels, 08/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - The round of negotiations in Brussels this week on the EU's accession to the European Convention on Human Rights is taking place in a “very positive” atmosphere, said Philippe Boillat, Director General for Human Rights and Council of Europe (CoE) chief negotiator on Wednesday 8 December. Boillat continues to be hopeful that the road map can be adhered to and that negotiations can be completed for March of next year, with approval of the outcome by European Union and CoE decision-making bodies before the end of June.
Currently, in the EU, the accession treaty will have to be ratified by unanimous decision of the Council of Ministers and by a two thirds majority in the European Parliament, and, in the CoE, similar procedures will have to be followed. Thereafter, it will have to be put to the member states for national ratification. In the best-case scenario, the whole process will be completed before the end of 2013. At that time, “there will be no more gaps in human rights protection in Europe,” Boillat said.
Negotiations, which derive from the Lisbon Treaty, observe three basic principles: absolute equality between the EU and the CoE; keeping to a minimum the changes to be made to the Convention to accommodate the specificities of the EU; and attempts to keep the treaty of accession as brief and as simple as possible. Among the matters still to be resolved are the co-defender mechanism, when an EU directive or standard has been challenged in a member state, and the issue of the relationship between the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg and the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, when an EU directive or standard is challenged at European level. Alongside negotiations on EU accession to the European Human Rights Convention, other contacts between the EU and the CoE have taken place in Brussels over the last few days. Jean-Louis Laurens, Director General for Political Affairs at the CoE, met EU officials to discuss, inter alia, human rights in Russia, at almost the same time as the EU-Russia Summit was taking place, the latest developments in Georgia, and prospects for cooperation between the EU and CoE in the former Communist republics born of the disintegration of the Soviet Union. (Gp/transl.rt)