As negotiations on the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) resumed on Tuesday 29 September in Strasbourg and will continue until 2 October, Marija Pejčinović Burić, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and Věra Jourová, Vice-President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, issued a joint statement.
They recalled that this accession is “a legal obligation prescribed by the Lisbon Treaty” and see it as “an important step towards the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout Europe”.
Negotiations had already been held between 2010 and 2013. However, in December 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union published an opinion in which it pointed, on the one hand, to the absence of a provision ensuring genuine coordination between the ECHR and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and, on the other hand, to the lack of knowledge of the intrinsic nature of the Union in an agreement that would make it a mere “contracting party”. The Union could then challenge one of its Member States before the European Court of Human Rights or be attacked by one of them, which would undermine the balance on which it is based and the autonomy of its law, it was pointed out.
“In these difficult times, the resumption of these crucial negotiations [proposed by the Commission in October 2019] is a strong signal of the commitment of our two organisations to the fundamental values”, said Marija Pejčinović Burić and Věra Jourová. They also stressed that accession will enable the EU to intervene in support of its Member States in proceedings involving legislation deriving from EU law. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)