Overview

• Nine EU heads—including Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen and Poland’s Donald Tusk—issued an open letter urging the Strasbourg court to reinterpret the ECHR to ease expulsion of serious foreign criminals.
• The letter argues that the court has extended its remit beyond original intentions, safeguarding “wrong people” and hampering member states’ ability to deport violent offenders and drug traffickers.
• Shadow home secretary Chris Philp warned the UK Conservatives may withdraw from the convention if “radical and fundamental change” is not secured.
• Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has unveiled proposals to curb judges’ ECHR powers, block judicial injunctions against deportations and impose tagging and curfews on foreign offenders.
• Council of Europe Secretary-General Alain Berset cautioned that politicizing the court risks undermining the independence of institutions that protect fundamental rights.