Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-04-19-Speech-4-399-000"
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"en.20120419.18.4-399-000"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner Kallas, honourable Members, thank you for the opportunity to participate in the debate on the European Convention on Human Rights. As you know, in accordance with the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU is to accede to the European Convention on Human Rights. The EU’s accession to the Convention is a very important step for the protection of human rights in the EU. This matter is therefore particularly important to the EU itself, as well as being important to the Danish Presidency of the Council. I know that it is clearly very important to Parliament, too. This is clear from the declaration of 30 May 2010, in which Parliament expresses its clear support for the EU’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights. I am personally very pleased that Parliament has once again emphasised the importance of this matter by placing it on the agenda for the sitting here today. I would therefore like to thank you once again for the opportunity to discuss this matter, and I obviously look forward to hearing your views on the subject.
However, I would like to start by telling you a little about the status of the work on this matter in the Council. Since the Commission received the mandate in June 2010 to negotiate, on behalf of the EU, with the Member States of the Council of Europe concerning the EU’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights, it has been working very hard to ensure that progress is made in this matter. As you know, the Commission has negotiated with the Member States of the Council of Europe on behalf of the EU. In this regard, the Commission has been in constant contact with the relevant working group in the Council with a view to ensuring that a common position can be reached among the EU Member States with regard to the draft accession agreement. The negotiations between the Member States of the Council of Europe and the Commission were provisionally concluded in June last year with a draft accession treaty.
However, the necessary agreement within the Council on the draft accession agreement was lacking. Therefore, work has been going on intensively since October last year to produce a compromise proposal. The concerns expressed by individual Member States related to the competence of the International Court of Human Rights in cases relating to the common foreign and security policy. Another requirement that was the subject of in-depth discussions was the EU Member States’ voting rights in the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. The compromise also contains a number of clarifications in respect of the fact that the EU is not a state, but an international organisation.
As you know, the Council’s decision on the EU’s accession is to be taken unanimously. In the Presidency, therefore, we have worked hard to draw up a compromise in which we have been able to find solutions for the concerns that have been raised. With a view to maintaining progress in these very difficult negotiations, the Presidency decided to place the matter on the agenda at the Council meeting here next week. It is our hope that, in the light of the political discussions in the Council – that is to say those taking place next week – it will be possible to resume negotiations with the other Member States of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in the near future.
We will continue to work during the Danish Presidency to ensure that there is progress in the negotiations on the draft agreement, and in this regard we will, of course, do our utmost to achieve a common EU position on the text."@en1
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