The determination of the legal nature of framework decisions under the EU Treaty provokes the question of whether the EU has become a legal subject, i.e. a new international organization. If not, there are international agreements only made between the EU Member States, and, consequently, no acts from the organs of a legal subject exist. The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe brought this issue to the fore, because existing framework decisions are meant to survive under the new treaty-regime. The important question to discuss is, who is legally responsible for framework decisions. The answer will determine the remedies available to the individuals where there are infringements of their rights, including those in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The existence of various sub-systems as well as treaty-regimes in public international law, such as those of the EC, the EU and the ECHR, highlights the problem of fragmentation of international law, implying possible clashes between the systems/regimes; hence there is a need to reconcile them in order to protect common values. Here it is the matter of reconciling the EC/EU regimes with the ECHR.