Az Európai Bíróság gyakorlatából
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Absztrakt
By an Opinion given in 1996, the Court of Justice concluded that, as Community law stood at that time, the European Community had no competence to accede to the ECHR. Since then, the situation has fundamentally changed with the Treaty of Lisbon, which entered into force on 1 December 2009, and provides that the EU is to accede to the ECHR.
In accordance with this obligation, the Commission prepared a draft agreement containing the details of the accession. Then, as it always does prior to the conclusion of important international agreements, the Commission asked the Court to give its Opinion on the compatibility of the draft agreement with EU law.
In a new Opinion given in December 2014, the Court identified several problems in the draft agreement and found that it was not compatible with EU law.
The Court set out that the draft agreement did not ensure coordination between the ECHR and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and that it was liable to undermine the mutual trust between EU Member States regarding the respect of fundamental rights. In addition, it allows for the possibility that the EU or Member States might submit an application to the European Court of Human Rights (EctHR) concerning an alleged violation of the ECHR by a Member State or the EU in relation to EU law, which is clearly in breach of the Treaties.
Moreover, the co-respondent mechanism as well as the procedure for the prior involvement of the Court in proceedings before the ECtHR would risk adversely affecting, on the one hand, the division of powers between the EU and its Member States and, on the other hand, the competences of the EU and the powers of the Court, including the autonomy and effectiveness of the preliminary ruling procedure.
Lastly, by empowering the ECtHR to review acts, actions or omissions on the part of the EU in the area of the common foreign and security policy, the draft agreement fails to have regard to the specific characteristics of EU law in this area.