Tuesday 15 May 2012

Some Progress on EU Accession to the ECHR

It seems that after months of internal talks within the EU some form of consensus has been reached on a common position which will finally allow negotiations with the non-EU ECHR state parties to resume. This is the conclusion of Stian Øby Johansen of the University of Oslo over at Multirights Blog, on the basis of a recent EU press release. His analysis (The EU's accession to the ECHR: negotiations to resume after 7 -month hiatus) gives a succinct and clear overview of the latest developments and challenges ahead. As he argues, "Though important steps remain before the EU can call itself a party to the ECHR, the major political decisions have already been taken. It is difficult to imagine a total breakdown of the accession process or substantial changes in the core elements of the Accession Agreement. However, the final leg may take a considerable amount of time."