159
Third working session — The future prospects
With the accession to the Convention, the fate of European Union meas-
ures may be similar, as these may eventually be submitted to the authority of
the European Court of Human Rights, vested with the power of conducting
an ‘external control’, in addition to that of the European Court of Justice, the
scope of which may also cover acts and measures that fall beyond the reach of
the European Court of Justice’s jurisdiction, such as the actions taken within
the context of the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the primary sourc-
es of EU law (
11
).
As a matter of fact, as Judge Tulkens has stated, ‘le but de l’adhésion de
l’UE à la Convention a toujours été, précisement, de soumettre l’UE au même
contrôle extérieur que les Etats’ (
12
)
Although both national legal orders and the European Union possess their
own instruments for protecting fundamental rights and for judicial review of
legislation and other acts, in the multilevel system of fundamental rights, ‘ex-
ternal controls’ are nevertheless considered as having great importance. The
supervision of an external judge is supposed to improve the standard of pro-
tection also at the domestic level; moreover, in case of mistakes or inaccuracy
in first instance, the individual enjoys a second chance.
4. This feature of the European system clearly has undisputable strong
points.
The work of the two European Courts, and the virtuous interaction be-
tween all judges in Europe, have developed a common platform of shared
principles – a sort of new edition of the
jus commune europaeum
that secures
a good level of rights to all European citizens. Indeed, this is a valuable histori-
cal result, considering the variety of constitutional backdrops in the countries
of the European Union, a variety that is even greater in the bigger Europe of
the Council of Europe.
However, the various systems of protection of rights are not – and, more
relevant, are not meant to be – fully equivalent.
(
11
) This point and other relevant questions concerning the accession to the ECHR are discussed
by J.P. Jacqué,
The Accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,
48 CMLR, 2011, 995-1023, p. 1005 ss.
(
12
) Tulkens,
L’adhésion de l’Union européenne à la Convention européenne des droits de
l’homme. Pour et vers une organisation harmonieuse,
RTDE 2011, 27.
