Key Notes

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union was formally proclaimed in Nice by the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union (i.e. the Governments of the Member States) and the European Commission in December 2000. Its political impact is assured in the sense that all the institutions and Member States of the European Union bear its provisions in mind whenever they enact or apply legislation and whenever they negotiate with non-EU countries.

The draft of the Charter of Fundamental Rights was compiled by a Convention on the Fundamental Rights of the Union, which was convened for that purpose, an unprecedented step in the history of legal and political integration. The Convention comprised members of the national parliaments and of the European Parliament, representatives of the governments of the Member States and the competent European Commissioner. Together with their substitute members, they produced the draft Charter, which

• enshrines the primacy of human dignity,
• specifies the fundamental rights of Union citizens,
• describes the spiritual and legal foundations of the European Union,
• defines the European Union as a community based on common values and laws,
• constitutes the world’s newest declaration of fundamental rights and the first of the new century, and
• guarantees that all the institutions of the Union will respect its provisions.

The Charter begins with a preamble, which summarises its raison d’être and enumerates the values and principles that inspired it, those selfsame values and principles on which European construction is founded.

Six chapters, relating to dignity, freedoms, equality, solidarity, citizens’ rights and justice, precede Chapter VII, which sets out general provisions concerning the scope of the Charter and of the guaranteed rights, the level of protection afforded by the Charter and a clause prohibiting any abuse of the enshrined rights and freedoms.

Role of the EPP-ED Group

The influence of the parties affiliated to the EPP-ED on the work of the Convention was made possible by the coordinating activities of the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament and by the unity of the EPP-ED delegation within the Convention.

The EPP-ED family presented its own documents on the preamble and on economic, social and cultural rights. Although the final draft was the result of compromise, it was profoundly influenced by the EPP-ED family of parties.

The references to common values and an ever closer union are the direct input of the EPP-ED delegation. The reference to respect for the diversity of the national identities of the Member States and the organisation of their public authorities at national, regional and local levels is also the fruit of proposals from parties affiliated to the EPP-ED Group, as is the reference in the second paragraph of the preamble to the spiritual and moral heritage of the Union. This wording, on which the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament resolutely insisted, was the subject of intense debate until a satisfactory formulation was finally achieved.

The rights enshrined in Chapter I, namely human dignity, the right to life, integrity of the person and freedom from torture and slavery, enjoy the broadest of consensus at every level of the European Union.

When it came to the article on the right to ‘integrity of the person’, the Convention did not concur with the views of the EPP-ED Group, which wished to extend the ban on reproductive cloning of human beings to cloning for therapeutic purposes. Be that as it may, the integrity of the human person is afforded a high level of protection, in that a person’s free and informed consent to his or her medical treatment is always required in strict compliance with the law, which may contain more stringent provisions than those enshrined in the Charter. This protection is further enhanced by the confirmation of the ban on eugenic practices and on any attempt to make the human body and its parts as such a source of financial gain. These prohibitions are essential if the integrity of the human person is to be fully protected.

Chapter II, devoted to freedoms, owes its place in this Charter to the common constitutional traditions of the Member States. It places special emphasis on respect for family life and the right to marry, thereby enshrining fundamental freedoms that the EPP-ED Group played a decisive part in formulating. As examples, we can cite Article 11(2) on respect for the freedom and pluralism of the media, Article 13 on academic freedom and Article 14(3) on freedom of education, on freedom to found educational establishments and on the right of parents to decide on their children’s education.

Mention should also be made of Article 15 on the freedom to chose an occupation and the right to engage in work and especially of Article 16, which recognises the freedom to conduct a business; this latter clause was the subject of fierce controversy and would not have appeared in the Charter at all had it not been for the tenacity and judicious negotiation of the EPP-ED delegation.

The final wording of the clause on the right to property was also adapted in accordance with the wishes of the EPP-ED Group to include the formulation ‘subject to fair compensation being paid in good time for their loss’ to qualify the right of public authorities to expropriate people’s private property in the public interest.

Finally, it should be emphasised that Article 10(2), which recognises the right of conscientious objection, was introduced at the instance of the delegation from the European Parliament. In order to align the terms of the Charter with current legislation, the right to the protection of personal data was included as one of the inviolable personal freedoms.

Chapter III, relating to equality, refers to the prohibition of any discrimination against minorities in addition to the recognition of cultural, religious and linguistic diversity. The women of the EPP were also particularly insistent on the recognition and enshrinement in the Charter of equal rights for men and women, of the rights of the child and of the integration of persons with disabilities.

Chapter IV, on solidarity, was so important in the eyes of the EPP-ED delegation that it presented its own contribution to the Bureau, setting out its proposals for the formulation of these guiding rights and principles of social, economic and cultural life. Many of its postulates have been incorporated into the present Charter. Examples are to be found in the wording of the articles on workers’ right to information, on the right of collective bargaining and action and on protection in the event of unjustified dismissal. In some of these cases, the EPP-ED input corrected and/or qualified the radical and maximalist tone of excessively ‘collectivist’ proposals.

At the same time, the delegation played a major role in determining the wording of the provisions concerning the working conditions of young people and the reconciliation of family and professional life as well as the articles relating to the defence and protection of the environment and of consumers.

The concept of ‘services of general economic interest’ was enshrined at the insistence of the French delegation.

Following the adoption of the Charter and in the context of a resolution of the European Parliament on the Council’s annual report on human rights in the Union in the year 2000, our Group proposed that, as a means of ensuring greater respect for human rights in the Union, the Charter could be used as a working instrument and framework for a law-by-law and country-by-country analysis. It also proposed that the European Union in general, and the European Parliament in particular, be given the necessary resources for the performance of that task.

These resources would take the following forms:

the creation of an administrative unit in the European Parliament with special responsibility for monitoring respect for human rights in the countries of the Union and assisting the author of the annual report during its preparation,

the efforts of a network of lawyers to compile and maintain the necessary lists of useful data in each Member State of the Union, and

the creation of databases in collaboration with the corresponding institutions in the Member States and the NGOs operating in the realm of fundamental rights.

EPP-ED GROUP IN FAVOUR OF A BINDING CHARTER

Ever since the Charter of Fundamental Rights was proclaimed in December 2000, the EPP-ED Group has been determined to do everything in its power to ensure that the Charter is given binding force and that it is inserted into the Constitutional Treaty in the form of a preamble.

This desire was strengthened during the debates of the Convention on the Future of Europe in 2003, in which the EPP delegation stressed from the outset that the Charter should be an integral and legally binding element of a European constitution. Accordingly, Part Two of the final draft of the Constitutional Treaty, endorsed by our Group, reproduces the text of the Charter.


Natacha Scriban, Advisor