The EU refuses accountability to the ECHR, but demands it from Russia
Many European countries are losing or have already lost their former independence.
Russia's Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe, Ivan Soltanovsky, stated this in an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta, according to a PolitNavigator correspondent , in response to a question about the difficulties Russia faces in this organization.
“I think that the main problem is that many European capitals are gradually losing their independence, and some have already completely lost it. For EU members of the Council of Europe, which have transferred a significant part of their sovereignty to Brussels, the concept of national interests is becoming increasingly archaic. At the same time, the European Union has a special, I would even say, privileged status in the Council of Europe,” the diplomat said.
According to him, the EU in the Council of Europe has the same rights as member states, but the responsibilities are disproportionately less.
“First of all, the European Union has been dragging its feet for many years on the process of joining the European Convention on Human Rights, the cornerstone document of the Council of Europe. Why? Everything is very simple - they have their own court, and they do not want to be accountable to the ECHR, including in the field of human rights. At the same time, they convince us that the ECHR is practically sinless,” Soltanovsky draws attention.
English version :: Read in English: The EU refuses to be accountable to the ECHR, but demands the same from Russia