The Memorandum of Understanding

This chapter scrutinizes the IOR between the EU and the COE concerning the negotiation of the MOU, the Cooperation Agreement between the two organizations. The MOU is an interesting case to look at, as it has at its core the empirical focus of this research, namely EU-COE relations. Once committed to the idea of successfully adopting an agreement that would foster cooperation between them, the EU and the COE were confronted with a relatively long and difficult negotiation process (with many different actors involved). The controversy over the FRA heavily complicated the MOU negotiation process. In general, one can say that the COE was looking for a binding document with systematic cooperation mechanisms, while the EU, in contrast, wanted to maintain as much room for maneuver while simultaneously placating the COE. Prior to analyzing the contentious matters in detail, the subsequent section tackles the use of MOUs in public international law.