The Accession of the European Union to the ECHR: A Gift for the ECHR’s 60th Anniversary or An Unwelcome Intruder at the Party?

Abstract

This article outlines the European Union’s gradual progression towards a legal obligation to observe human rights: a series of stops and starts from Brussels to Strasbourg with a starring role for Luxembourg and significant supporting roles for Berlin and Karlsruhe. This commitment towards human rights will acquire a new dimension. The Lisbon Treaty requires the European Union to accede to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). With the entry into force of the 14th Protocol to the ECHR, Strasbourg too is now ready to accept the EU as a party to the Convention. But the real work is ongoing: the negotiations about the modalities of the accession are underway. This article looks at the main subjects for discussion. Is the EU, as a new party to the ECHR, the ultimate anniversary gift for Strasbourg, or is it a potentially troublesome guest at the party? I. Background: the EU’s Gradual Progression towards a Legal Obligation to Observe Human Rights The debate about the desirability of the European Union (or its precursors) being legally bound to respect human rights has been ongoing for decades. It is not very strange that in 1957, when the European Economic Community was founded, human rights were not at the forefront of people’s minds. Previous initiatives to establish a more general European Political Community had died a quiet death in 1954, when France’s National Assembly decided not to pursue this avenue. Once these initiatives had collapsed, the negotiations focused purely on economic cooperation. This is clearly reflected in Article 2 of the EC Treaty, which states that the Community’s objective is to promote throughout the Community a harmonious development of economic activities, a continuous and balanced expansion, an increase in stability, a high degree of convergence of economic performance, a high level of employment, sustainable and non-inflationary growth, a high degree of competitiveness, and so forth. None of these objectives leads directly to think of the need to * Professor Martin Kuijer is senior adviser on human rights to the Minister of Security and Justice and professor of human rights at the VU University Amsterdam. This article reflects his personal views; the views set forth in § 4, in particular, do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Dutch government. A Dutch version of this article was published previously in Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Mensenrechten 2010, pp. 932-947. 1 See e.g. R.A. Lawson, Het EVRM en de Europese Gemeenschappen: Bouwstenen voor een aansprakelijkheidsregime voor het optreden van internationale organisaties, Deventer: Kluwer, 1999.