At their Council meeting on 7 October 2019, the ministers of justice of the EU Member States reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to acceding to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The ministers also agreed to supplementary negotiating directives. They will be addressed to the Commission so that it can resume negotiations with the Council of Europe in the near future. They will take into account the objections raised by the Court of Justice, which found a draft agreement negotiated in 2013 to be incompatible with the treaties of the European Union (Opinion 2/13 of 18 December 2014).

In May 2019, the Commission submitted an analysis on the legal issues of the CJEU’s decision, which formed the basis for the adapted negotiation guidelines. It is expected that the Commission will resume the negotiations soon. The Treaty on European Union provides for the accession of the EU to the ECHR. Its objective is to reinforce the common values of the Union, improve the effectiveness of EU law, and enhance the coherence of fundamental rights protection in Europe.