EU's Concern Of The Protocol No.16 To The Autonomy Of EU Law

The human rights protection mechanism of the European Convention on Human Rights provides a set of basic rights and freedoms of protection for European citizens.The EU as an independent organization has become an important member of the international arena and is proud of its well-established human rights protection policy.Respecting and protecting the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens of the EU member states is an important condition for the EU.However,the EU has not joined any human rights organization,it seriously affected the international credibility of EU's international protection of human rights protection.Moreover,EU citizens cannot seek external judicial protection to appeal the EU for violating human rights.Therefore,the EU's accession to the European Convention on Human Rights will have a very important positive impact on the protection of human rights for EU citizens.Even if EU's accession to the European Convention on Human Rights has a certain urgency and necessity,but its development process is with a lot of blocks.The European Court of Justice questioned on whether the draft agreement on the accession is compatible with the EU fundamental treaty,in its 2/13 Opinion,there is a similarity between Advisory Opinion of the Protocol No.16 and Preliminary Ruling Procedure of the TFEU.In addition,the European Court of Justice held that the European Court of Human Rights could interpret the EU law by utilizing the mechanism of the advisory opinion and would affect the coherence and completeness of EU law.It considered that the Protocol No.16 to the European Convention on Human Rights would be a threat to the autonomy of EU law.The comparison between advisory opinion and the preliminary ruling procedure finds that there are a bit similarities in the form,but there are substantial differences in the substantive content of the subject,the purpose of the establishment,the legal effect and the discretionary space.So,the European Court of Justice exaggerated the similarity between the advisory opinion and the preliminary ruling procedure,and the competition or parallel relationship between the two mechanisms was not establishedfrom the practical application.In the 2/13 Opinion,the European Court of Justice ignores the demarcation of the EU and its member States in the judicial framework of the European Convention on Human Rights,and the European Court of Justice has neglected the well-established mechanism such as co-respondent mechanism and the prior involvement procedure in the draft accession agreement to protect the autonomy of EU legal order.Thus,Protocol No.16 to the European Convention on Human Rights does not pose a threat to the autonomy of EU law,but rather as a judicial relief measure against the EU's protection of human rights.In addition,it is regarded as a minimum protection standard of human rights and freedoms for EU's citizens.