Human-rights convention deal blocked

France and UK hold up EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights.

France and the United Kingdom are blocking a deal on the European Union’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights, disrupting plans to fast-track the EU’s application for membership of the Council of Europe.

Diplomats and officials from the European Commission and the Council of Europe admit that talks have stalled over approval by EU member states of a provisional deal that the Commission negotiated with the Council of Europe last June.

“Some would say it is a blocking or postponement,” said Thorbjørn Jagland, secretary-general of the Council of Europe. “They want to have clarification on some issues.”

Goals were set for negotiations and ratification to be completed by the end of this year when talks on EU membership started two years ago. The EU is obliged under the Lisbon treaty to join the Council of Europe and sign up to its human-rights convention, to bolster citizens’ rights.

By signing up to the convention, all EU laws, rules and regulations will be subject to the scrutiny of the Strasbourg court.

Limited progress

Diplomats from Denmark, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers, said progress had been made in a special working group on Thursday (19 January), but not enough to break the deadlock.

France and the UK are concerned about the effect that signing up to the human-rights convention will have on EU law.

France opposes subjecting the EU’s common foreign and security policy to the convention and wants more clarity over interaction between the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

For the UK, the problems are more political. Diplomats said the UK is holding up an accord until it gets members of the Council of Europe to agree to reforms that are supposed to reduce the workload of the ECHR. The UK, which currently holds the six-month presidency of the Council of Europe, is pushing for the Strasbourg court to bring in a screening procedure to filter out repeat cases that could be dealt with at national level.

David Cameron, the UK prime minister, has made the reform a priority in the wake of widespread domestic opposition to several EHCR rulings against a blanket ban on voting rights for prisoners.