European Union and the European Convention on Human Rights

that the EU join as a member of the Council of Europe now that it has attained a single legal personality in the Lisbon Treaty.

[4][5][6] However, a few months later, the ECJ declared (Opinion 2/13) the draft agreement to be incompatible with Article 6(2) of the Treaty of European Union,[7] thus bringing the accession process to a halt.

Among other factors, ECJ noted that to do so would give an external body the power to review the application of EU law.

[7] ECJ gives the European Convention on Human Rights "special significance" as a "guiding principle" in its case law.

"[11] As seen in Article 6(2) of the Maastricht Treaty, quoted above, the European Union is bound to respect fundamental rights principles.

[citation needed] After this deadlock, some Italian senators have put forward a new proposal,[14] based on the partial merger of the two Courts.