Opinion 2/13 and Accession to the ECHR

Abstract

Opinion 2/13, handed down just before Christmas 2014, is a landmark decision in both EU human rights law and EU external relations law. It showed that the EU’s rhetorical commitment to international human rights protection is not necessarily matched by action: Opinion 2/13 was the second time the Court of Justice put the brakes on the EU’s ambition to become a party to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) for reasons rooted in the EU’s constitutional set-up. Having comprehensively assessed the fairly elaborate ECHR draft accession agreement (DAA), the CJEU provided the yardstick for any future attempt at accession: the constitutional hurdles identified will have to be taken for any reworked DAA to pass muster. The Opinion is also a landmark judgment in the wider field of EU external relations. By clarifying and strengthening the principle of the autonomy of the EU legal order, the Court reiterated the legal limits governing the EU’s ability to integrate into the wider international order at a time when EU external relations and EU treaty-making are becoming increasingly important. 

Keywords: EU Law, ECHR, Accession, Opinion 2/13, CJEU