Back in 1996, in Opinion 2/94,
the CJEU ruled that as European Community (EC) law stood
at that time, the EC could not accede to the ECHR. Only a Treaty amendment could
overturn this judgment. In 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon did just that, inserting a new
provision in the Treaties that required the EU to accede to the ECHR.
That treaty also
added Protocol 8 to the Treaties, regulating aspects of the accession, as well as a Declaration requiring that accession to the ECHR must comply with the “specific
characteristics” of EU law.
More precisely, Article 1 of the Protocol stated that the accession treaty would have to: