Strasbourg, 13/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 12 January, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, said that the ball was now in the EU's court, following the verdict of the Court of Justice concluding that the draft agreement on the accession of the EU as a whole to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was incompatible with the provisions of the Treaty on the Union (see EUROPE 11221).
“The EU must now reflect upon and discuss how it must understand the Court's verdict”, he said in Strasbourg, at a meeting of the committee on foreign affairs of the European Parliament. “We await the EU's reaction to tackle and resolve this problem”, the Secretary General added. He stressed the need for “political will” and to “avoid further institutional wars on the European continent”. “It is important to move the accession process forward”, he stressed.
Jagland reiterated why this accession is important. He explained that if there is no agreement on the standards (the European Charter of Fundamental Rights leaves the member states the option to apply higher protection standards than those laid down in the ECHR - Ed) and the EU accedes to the same Court or has its own Court (the EU would be subject to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights, yet this would not be linked by the interpretation provided by the Court of Justice of the EU - Ed), “there would be a risk that we are bringing about a separation, with two different jurisdictions over time”. “Depending on whether or not a country is a member of the EU, the protection of human rights would eventually be undermined, watered down”; “this is why we must avoid a further demarcation line as regards human rights and the rule of law”, the representative of the Council of Europe explained.
Jagland stressed that the EU and the Council of Europe “depend on each other” and are “complementary institutions”. “The EU is a vital partner, a crucial partner. Our work is closely linked. The Council of Europe cannot function without a strong EU and, conversely, the EU cannot function without taking as its basis the European Convention on Human Rights and the other conventions stemming from it”, he concluded. (CG)