When the European Commission’s London office sent the following note to several newsdesks at the end of the last year, they must have thought it was the end of the matter:
Information note to Newsdesks: European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is not part of the European Union (EU)
Newsdesks and subeditors are asked to note that decisions of the European Court of Human Rights should not be referred to as EU decisions, and the judgements should not be attributed to “EU judges”, or any similar language. The European Court of Human Rights is part of the Council of Europe, a completely separate organisation to the European Union. The UK is a founding member of the Council of Europe, which was created in 1949 by the Treaty of London.
Council of Europe website: http://www.coe.int
However, as papers like the Daily Mail have proved time and time and time again, they just will not learn:
Repeat after me: the European Court of Human Rights is not an EU institution.
For me the use of the opinionated ‘staggering’ is more objectionable. Two more reporters who need a spell at journalism school.