The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (87 page)

 
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European Union
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The Convention, which was inspired in part by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and was drafted under the auspices of the Council of Europe, entered into force in 1953, and is largely confined to civil and political rights. Perhaps its most radical and innovatory features are the procedural capacities conferred upon victims of alleged human rights violations and the machinery of enforcement. Applicants may submit petitions alleging violations of the Convention to the European Commission of Human Rights, provided that the state against which the complaint has been made is a party to the Convention and has accepted the right of individual petition (Art. 25(1)). Protocol 9, which has not yet entered into force, envisages that ‘persons, nongovernmental organizations or groups of individuals’ would have the power to bring their case before the European Court of Human Rights once their complaint had been examined by the Commission. The machinery of enforcement currently comprises the European Commission and Court of Human Rights, both of which were established under the Convention. The role of the Commission is to examine complaints in terms of admissibility, to ascertain the facts, to attempt a friendly settlement, and to draw up a Report (Arts. 28–31, as amended by Protocol 8). The Court, provided that its jurisdiction has been accepted by the relevant state or states, has the power to adopt binding decisions comparable to those of a national court (Art. 53) and to award ‘just satisfaction to the injured party’ in appropriate circumstances (Art. 50). The judgments of the Court have had a significant impact on the recognition and protection of civil liberties in Europe, particularly in states such as the United Kingdom which lack a written code of fundamental rights. In accordance with decisions adopted at the first summit meeting of the thirty-two-strong Council of Europe, in October 1993, a protocol will be drafted providing for the merging of the present Commission and Court into ‘a single European Court of Human Rights’ with a view to expediting the examination of petitions brought under the Convention.
It is important to avoid confusion between the European Court of Human Rights and the
European Court of Justice
.
IP 

 
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The European Council initially emerged as a series of summits, starting in 1969 in the Hague, between the heads of government and heads of state of the European Community (EC). In 1974 these political leaders agreed to meet three times each year. They took the title of the European Council. It was not until the
Single European Act
(1986) that the European Council came to have a treaty basis. It co-ordinates the various elements or ‘pillars’ of the European Union (EU) established by the Treaty on European Union (1992). However, the European Council remains outside the jurisdiction of the
European Court of Justice
, and therefore arguably outside the EU, narrowly defined. The original model of the Community envisaged a technocratic integration of the states of Europe, bypassing the high politics of the member states. As a result, the heads of government and heads of state had no role in the EC. The European Council developed in response to the crisis in the legislative system of the European Community which began in the mid-1960s and resulted in a blight on the growth of the EC. The Council provided the impetus for the development of new consumer, environmental, and social policies, as well as initiating attempts at monetary union and foreign policy co-operation. Paradoxically the European Council played a key role in ‘relaunching’ the Community in the 1970s, while shifting the locus of initiative from the supranational Commission to the leaders of the member states.
DW 

 
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European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
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