[2] Protocol 14 led to reforms in three areas: The court's filtering capacity was reinforced to deal with clearly inadmissible applications, new admissibility criteria were introduced so that cases where the applicant has not suffered a significant disadvantage would be declared inadmissible, and measures were introduced to deal more effectively with repetitive cases.
The judge can be invited by the committee, to replace one of its members, but only for specific reasons, such as when the application relates to the exhaustion of national legal remedies.
The European Commissioner for Human Rights is now allowed to intervene in cases as a third party, providing written comments and taking part in hearings.
In order to prevent repetitive applications concerning structural problems in contracting states on which the court has previously made a final decision, the Committee of Ministers can in exceptional circumstances and with a two-thirds majority, initiate proceedings for non-compliance with a final decision in the Grand Chamber of the court.
In turn the Lisbon Treaty, which entered force in December 2009, provides that the European Union should accede and become a party to the convention.