For the most part, Council of Europe Treaties take shape in the Parliamentary Assembly which delivers its suggestions to the Committee of Ministers. Once the treaty has been adopted, member states can sign it, after which it passes to their national parliaments who decide whether or not to ratify it. If it is approved, then the rules and regulations contained within the treaty become part of their national laws.

Each state which signs and ratifies a treaty is legally obliged to respect it and put it into practice. The Council of Europe can then monitor the activities of a particular country to ensure that the various requirements of a treaty are being applied.

Council of Europe Treaty Office website

At its session in Madrid on 12 May 2009, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers adopted this new protocol that allows, pending entry into force of Protocol No. 14, the immediate and provisional application of two procedural elements of Protocol No. 14 with respect to those states that express their consent:

- A single judge will be able to reject plainly inadmissible applications, whereas now this requires a decision by a committee of three judges.

- The competence of three-judge committees will be extended to declare applications admissible and decide on their merits in well-founded and repetitive cases, where there already is a well-established case law of the Court. Currently, these cases are handled by chambers of seven judges.

In the margins of the Ministerial Session, a Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention adopted an agreement by consensus by virtue of which states may individually consent, on a provisional basis, to the direct application of the two mentioned procedural elements of Protocol 14 to the complaints filed against them. This agreement is complementary to Protocol No. 14bis since it opens a second legal avenue towards achieving the same result.

Protocole n° 14bis
Madrid Agreement
Conference of High Contracting Parties