Strasbourg, 26/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - Is there a running battle going on between the British government and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg? Nicolas Bratza (the president of the Court and who is himself British) declared on Thursday 26 January that this was not at all the case. During an annual press conference on the progress made by the institution, Sir Nicolas said that there was no conflict between the Court and the United Kingdom and that they agree on many different points. He said that he had read the moderate speech by his prime minister to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe the previous day, and they both would agree that the Court, due to an overload of inadmissible or repetitive demands, suffered from too big a backlog. He said that the ECHR should not become a Court of fourth instance and that they were the first to say this. He said that it was not a Court on immigration either and that they agreed on focusing on important cases, but it was false to say that they were sending out a message that ultimately meant encroaching on the individual states' remit. Bratza regretted that a single ruling - considering the refusal of the rights of prisoners as being discriminatory - was being used by United Kingdom to launch a general attack against the Court, because this clashed with the opinion of the government and the public. Bratza is awaiting proposals from the British presidency of the Council of Europe on reform of the ECHR. He announced that the Court would be consulted and would present its official opinion. (VL/transl.fl)