[02/02/2010 15:00:00] Secretary General, Thorbjørn Jagland, spoke at the seminar on Fundamental rights in the European Union in view of the accession of the Union to the European Convention on Human Rights, which takes place on 2-3 February in Madrid. The seminar, organised by the incoming Spanish Presidency of the European Union and the Fundamental Rights Agency, was attended by Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, German Minister of Justice and Francisco Caamaño, Spanish Minister of Justice as well as national and European civil servants, legal experts, civil society representatives, human rights organisations and academics. In his opening speech, the Secretary General stressed that EU accession to the Convention would create a continent-wide area of human rights, in which 47 governments and the institutions of the European Union will be bound by the same set of human rights standards and scrutinised by the same human rights court. He also underlined that political guidance was essential to secure EU accession to the Convention. (more ...)
Speech by Thorbjørn Jagland
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