Sir, – Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, writes that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is "a body . . . unrelated to the European Union" ("Protection of sources is a principle worth defending now more than ever", Opinion & Analysis, February 22nd).
Accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (and its court at Strasbourg) is a condition – listed among the 1993 Copenhagen criteria – for entry into the European Union.
The accession of the EU, as an entity, to the convention became a legal obligation under the Treaty of Lisbon.
While they remain separate organisations, official talks on the EU’s accession to the ECHR have been under way since 2010.
Whatever you think of the ECHR (with judges from serial human-rights abusing Albania, Azerbaijan and Russia, leavened with comic opera Montenegro, San Marino and Andorra), it is joined at the hip to the EU. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Gaoth Dobhair,
Co Dhún na nGall.