End of an Epic? The Draft Agreement on the EU's Accession to the ECHR

Abstract

This contribution aims to analyse and assess the draft agreement on the European Union’s (EU) accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). 1 The draft agreement was drawn up by a so-called ‘informal working group’ situated within the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee on Human Rights (CDDH). The group consisted of fourteen experts, seven from EU Member States and seven from non-EU countries, who had been chosen on the basis of their experience and not as representatives of their governments. The meetings were held with representatives of the European Commission, which had been issued with a negotiating mandate by the Council of the EU, 2 and were attended by experts from the Council of Europe. 3 Negotiations started in July 2010 and a draft agreement was presented on 24 June 2011, which was endorsed by the CDDH on 14 October 2011. Currently, negotiations are ongoing within the European...