Last week the European Parliament held a hearing on the future accession of the European Union to the European Convention of Human Rights. A number of experts addressed the meeting. The speech of Serhiy Holovaty of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly can be found here. A draft report, authored by the European Parliament’s own rapporteur Ramón Jáuregui Atondo of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, is entitled ‘Draft Report on the institutional aspects of the accession of the European Union to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms’. An opinion from his colleague from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Cristian Dan Preda, is entitled ‘Draf Opinion of the Committee on Foreign Affairs for the Committee on Constitutional Affairs on institutional aspects of the accession of the European Union to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms’. A parallel opinion was drafted by Kinga Gál of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.
These opinions and reports are the opening movements of a process which may take months or more probably even years, during which a lot of details will have to be negotiated, both within the EU and between the EU and the Council of Europe. Certainly to be continued… Let’s hope this legal symphony will not become an Unvollendete!
Thanks to the ever-informed Andrew Dremczewski of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly for notifying me of this!
