On 10 December 2025, 27 Council of Europe states adopted a statement expressing their concerns about the migration case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). They believe that the ECtHR imposes too many restrictions on European governments.
In this report, the authors answer the question of how strict the Court’s case law really is for European states. The analysis focuses on the content of the ECtHR case law and shows that:
– the Court has been state-friendly from the outset,
– over the last decade, case law has imposed fewer restrictions on states,
– the basic standards of the ECHR are enshrined in other, binding instruments and
– the impact of this case law at national level is limited in the case of Belgium.
The report, written by Ellen Desmet, Eva Sevrin and Thomas Spijkerboer, and co-signed by more than 25 colleagues, is available in English, Dutch and French.