Accession to the ECHR

With the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon the long drawn-out debate over the accession of the European Community — and later the European Union — to the European Convention on Human Rights approaches its end. Article 6(2) TEU makes accession mandatory for the European Union, while Article 17 of Protocol No 14 to the European Convention — which entered into force in June 2010 — opens up the possibility of accession. However, accession will require the adoption and entry into force of an agreement, probably in the form of a further protocol to the European Convention. Certain questions still need to be resolved. This explains the strict conditions imposed for the conclusion of the accession agreement by Article 218 TFEU and Protocol No 8 to the Treaties. One of these questions is how to ensure that the European Union will be a party to proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights when an alleged infringement of the European Convention originates in an act of an institution of the European Union. To make accession meaningful, the European Court should make a full review of acts of the European Union and thus abandon the approach taken in Bosphorus.