Abstract
The European Convention on Human Rights is one of the main sources as to the protection of fundamental rights of the EU citizens. The case law of the European Court of Human Rights, as a source of interpretation of the rights enshrined in the European Convention, constitutes, therefore, an important instrument for strengthening of their legal protection. The aim of this paper is to explain how the European Court perceives the European Union and how the citizenship of the Union is reflected in the case law of this Court. Attention will be paid to the following areas:
1) applications lodged with the Court against the European Union;
2) applications alleging violation of the European Convention, which are based on the EU law,
3) referring to the EU law in the case law of the European Court,
4) the authorities of the European Union as a third party to the proceedings before the European Court and
5) regulation of citizenship in the case law of the European Court. All these aspects will be discussed in light of the prospective accession of the European Union to the European Convention on the basis of the Lisbon Treaty and Protocol No. 14 to the Convention.