The Steering Committee for Human Rights of the Council of Europe (CDDH) held an extraordinary meeting online on 4 April 2023, at which it adopted its Interim Report to the Committee of Ministers, for information, on the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights.

The CDDH ad hoc negotiation Group (“46+1”) on EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights held its 18th and final meeting in Strasbourg from 14 to 17 March 2023.

The meeting was mainly devoted to the discussion of issues relating to Article 7 of the Accession Agreement regarding voting in the Committee of Ministers on decisions concerning the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights by the EU.

The Group furthermore discussed and agreed to make some changes to Article 3, paragraphs 5-8, and to the corresponding paragraphs of the explanatory report, concerning the triggering and termination of the co-respondent mechanism, the principle of joint responsibility, and the prior involvement procedure.

Thus, the only outstanding issue was that of the EU acts in the area of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (Basket 4). The problem here stems from paragraph 256 of Opinion 2/13 in which the CJEU stated that “jurisdiction to carry out a judicial review of acts, actions or omissions on the part of the EU, including in the light of fundamental rights, cannot be conferred exclusively on an international court which is outside the institutional and judicial framework of the EU”.

As regards the latter issue, the representative of the EU informed the Group of the EU’s intention to resolve it internally, and of its expectation that the Group would not be required to address this issue as part of its own work, but that resolution of this issue had not yet been achieved within the EU.

This being so, the Group concluded that it had resolved all of the issues that it was currently expected to address. It therefore provisionally agreed to adopt the resulting package of revised draft accession instruments, and adopted its report to the CDDH. The latter and the final meeting report are appended below.

An extraordinary meeting, at which the CDDH will adopt its report to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, will take place on 4 April 2023.

With all the issues raised by the CJEU in its Opinion 2/13 now having been addressed by the 46+1 Group, except that of Basket 4 which the EU undertook to address internally, the future of EU accession now lies entirely in the hands of the EU and its Member States. The progress of the procedure leading to the entry into force of that Agreement will therefore not least depend on how quick the EU will be in keeping-up the momentum for EU accession and offering a solution for Basket 4. In any event, the agreement amongst the “46 + 1” shows that all States involved remain committed to see EU accession become reality.

The CDDH ad hoc negotiation Group (“46+1”) on EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights held its 17th meeting in Strasbourg from 31 January to 2 February 2023.

The Group continued discussions on the issue of voting in the Committee of Ministers when supervising the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in cases to which the EU is a party. It also examined proposals by one delegation for some minor changes to Article 3 of the Draft Accession Agreement.

As regards EU acts in the area of the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the representative of the European Union informed the Group that an agreement had not yet been reached between the European Union member States on a solution to the issue in Basket 4. The European Union and its member States were well aware of the Fourth Summit deadline and understood the sense of urgency; all concerned were working hard, and he hoped to have more news before the Group’s next meeting.

The CDDH ad hoc negotiation Group (“46+1”) on EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights held its 16th meeting in Strasbourg from 22 to 24 November 2022.

The Group’s discussions focused mainly on the issue of voting in the Committee of Ministers when supervising the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in cases to which the EU is a party. The Group examined various options for addressing this issue and identified areas for further exploration.

In this context, the representative of the EU also updated the Group on the EU’s ongoing work to find a solution to the Basket 4 issue (cases relating to the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy). He noted that the issue would be raised at a meeting of the EU Ministers of Justice in early December.

The CDDH ad hoc negotiation Group (“46+1”) on EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights held its 15th meeting from 5 to 7 October 2022. The Group tentatively agreed on a proposal concerning requests for advisory opinions under Protocol no. 16 to the Convention. It also agreed to consider a new proposal concerning the election of judges to the European Court of Human Rights and continued its discussions on the issue of voting in the Committee of Ministers when supervising the implementation of the Court’s judgments by the EU, amongst other things. 

At this stage, the main outstanding issue for discussion by the group relates to the Common Foreign and Security Policy, since, as stated in the meeting report, the negotiations on other issues were drawing towards a conclusion. In this connection, the representative of the European Union informed the group that the EU and its member States are currently working on this issue and making efforts to submit a proposal as soon as possible.

The CDDH ad hoc negotiation group (“46+1”) on EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights held its 14^th meeting on 5-7 July 2022 with the participation of almost 90 delegates. The main results of the meeting were a tentative agreement on the issue concerning inter-party applications under Article 33 of the Convention, progress towards a possible solution to the issue concerning requests for an advisory opinion under Protocol No. 16, and clarification of issues relating to voting in the Committee of Ministers when supervising the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.

The CDDH ad hoc negotiation group (“46+1”)* on the EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights held its 13th meeting on 10-13 May 2022. In total, more than 80 delegates participated in this meeting, which took place in hybrid format. The handling of interstate applications (Art. 33 of the Convention) and of requests for an advisory opinion (Protocol no. 16 to the Convention) post-accession, the voting rights in the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe as well as the Common Foreign and Security Policy were among the topics discussed.

(*) The name of the group has been changed from “47+1” to “46+1” following the cessation of the membership of the Russian Federation to the Council of Europe on 16 March 2022.

The CDDH ad hoc negotiation group (“47+1”) on EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights held its 12^th  meeting from 7-10 December 2021. The meeting was held as a hybrid meeting (i.e. with delegates participating both in the meeting room and via video-conference). In total, more than 75 delegates participated.

The Group discussed in particular proposals related to the EU’s specific mechanism of the procedure before the European Court of Human Rights, the principle of mutual trust between the EU member states, as well as the situation of EU acts in the area of the Common Foreign and Security Policy that are excluded from the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

In this context, the Group tentatively agreed on operative provisions and corresponding paragraphs for the explanatory report concerning the triggering of the co-respondent mechanism and mutual trust (reproduced in Appendix IV and V of the meeting report respectively).