Sir, – Newton Emerson writes that "The European Convention on Human Rights and its court at Strasbourg have nothing to do with the EU" ("Irish nationalist hysteria over Brexit seems more wind than candle", Opinion & Analysis, July 7th).
Accession to the European Convention on Human Rights is one of the conditions (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 Lisbon Treaty. Official talks on the EU’s accession have been under way since 2010.
Whatever you think of the European Court of Human Rights (with judges from serial human rights-abusing Albania, Azerbaijan and Russia – leavened with comic opera Montenegro, San Marino and Andorra), it has everything to do with the EU. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Vienna.