170 Nyman-Metcalf and Papageorgiou/Implementation of rulings by regional courts the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights lies with member states, which are not only obliged to ensure adherence to the rulings of the courts in the specific cases but also to modify laws and practices in line with any decision. The systems include various guarantees and mechanisms to ensure that enforcement takes place – making member states the tools for the common policy. When the EU was created, it did not have a mandate for human rights. However, as integration deepened as well as widened, it became clear that human rights issues were intertwined with such matters that were in the EU competence, as free movement, trade and others. In recent years, there has been a dynamic development of human rights protection in Europe, with the EU and the Court of Justice of the European Union assuming competence over human rights to the extent that these rights are linked to EU areas of competence;2 this tendency was enhanced with the adoption in 2000 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU that became binding in 20093 and with the ongoing debate of the EU as an organisation adhering to the European Convention of Human Rights (European Convention).4 After the fall of communism and the discussion of enlarging the EU, adherence to the Council of Europe (CoE) and its human rights instruments became a prerequisite for EU membership through the so-called Copenhagen criteria.5 Mattli calls organs of the EU like the Court of Justice of the European Union (and the European Commission) ‘commitment institutions’. The powers of these organs mean that implementation of rights is not only in the hands of the member states.6 The institutions can ultimately decide on suspension of member states and limitations of their rights, but their daily monitoring of the application of EU law is normally more important than any strong action to sanction member states. In addition to the Court of Justice of the European Union, Europe has the most powerful regional human rights court, the European Court of Human Rights, which implements the European Convention in the context of the CoE. Enforcement is formally in the hands of the CoE Committee of Ministers, but member states are under strong pressure 2 T Kerikmäe ‘EU Charter: Its nature, innovative character, and horizontal effect’ in T Kerikmäe (ed) Protecting human rights in the EU (2014) 6. 3 http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-rights/charter/index_en.htm (accessed 6 July 2017). 4 The first explicit reference in EU law of the ECHR was in the Maastricht Treaty 1992. Similar standards of human rights had also earlier been implemented by the CJEU. 5 The Copenhagen criteria were established by the Copenhagen European Council in 1993 and strengthened by the Madrid European Council in 1995. They include three main sets of conditions, the first of which (the so-called political criteria) require from a membership candidate to fulfill the conditions of “stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities”. https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/policy/glossary/terms/accessioncriteria_en (accessed 7 July 2017). 6 W Mattli The logic of regional integration (1999) 13-15. See also D Webber ‘Regional integration in Europe and Asia’ in B Fort & D Webber (eds) Regional Integration in East Asia and Europe: convergence and divergence (2006) 302.