Participation of the European Union in the judicial process of the European Court of Human Rights: co-defendant mechanism

The article examines the features of the application of the co-defendant mechanism, provided by the Agreement on the Accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950, as the main mechanism for the participation of the European Union in the judicial process of the European Court of Human Rights. The author analyzes the problematic aspects of application of the co-defendant mechanism, as well as the novelties developed by the ad hoc group (46+1) within the framework of the newly opened in 2019 negotiations on the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights. The analysis of the revised Agreement on the Accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950 demonstrates fundamental changes in the application of the co-defendant mechanism: a mechanism of termination of the co-defendant procedure is introduced, the European Court of Human Rights is obliged to inform the European Union without delay that the case in question involves the application of European Union law, the European Court of Human Rights is deprived of discretionary powers to determine the degree of responsibility of the defendant, and the European Court of Human Rights is deprived of discretionary powers to determine the extent of the defendant’s liability and the extent of the co-defendant’s responsibility. Finally, the author comes to the conclusion that the updated Accession Agreement takes into account all the requirements of the European Union and the Court of Justice of the European Union, which in turn significantly increases the chances of the European Union’s accession to the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.