The effects of the European Union’s accession to the ECHR on the protection of human rights

Abstract

This research project entails an analysis on the likely effects the European Union’s accession to the European Convention of Human Rights would have on the protection of the citizens’ fundamental human rights. Such an accession will have other effects on EU law, such as on its legal autonomy, on the doctrine of equivalent protection and may cause reforms to the Convention itself and to EU institutions. However the effects on European human rights law will be the ultimate focus of this research project. The discussion on such effects will be preceded by a brief history of the relationship between the European Union and the Council of Europe’s most important instrument; the European Convention for Human Rights. The legal effects of this accession will then be discussed, namely those which would have been brought about had the propositions contained in the Draft Accession Agreement been accepted by the European Court of Justice. Such a discussion will be continued in the following chapter, but here importance will be given to the Court of Justice’s Opinion 2/13 of 18 December 2013 which declared such accession incompatible with the EU treaties. Its objections and required concessions will be examined, and the ways these objections can be addressed and its effects on future accession and protection of human rights will also be dealt with. The final part will consist of arguments and opinions, on whether the accession will ultimately bring stronger and better protection for human rights as a whole.