Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-21-Speech-1-067"
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"en.20021021.6.1-067"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I wish first of all to congratulate Mr Duff, not only in his capacity as rapporteur for this report but also in his capacity as a member of the Convention drafting the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The report we are discussing today is based on the previous positions held by Parliament, adopted when the Charter was drawn up, in the course of 2000, and these recommendations fully respond to the aim of making this Charter the basis for a constitution. I am speaking in my capacity as Commissioner but, of course, I cannot ignore the fact that, at the same time, I represent the Commission in the Convention on the Future of Europe and in that capacity, I chair the ‘Charter’ working group. Without going into details, I think I can tell the House that the members of the working group for the incorporation of the Charter into the Treaty have expressed broad consensus on the answers to give to the technical issues with which we are wrestling and which concern the modalities and consequences of the Charter’s potential incorporation into a future constitutional Treaty as well as the modalities and consequences of the European Union’s potential accession to the European Convention on Human Rights.
I believe that there is an enormous degree of unity between the recommendations contained in Mr Duff’s Report and the conclusions of the working group. To be specific, I would first emphasise my agreement with the fact that the Charter today is a reality that has truly taken root in European life, being used by citizens, by the Advocates-General, in judgments of the Court of First Instance, and by national courts, even at the highest level; the constitutional courts of the Member States.
Mr Duff’s Report also makes the observation that incorporating the Charter will not attribute new competences to the Union. The Charter is already clear on this matter but could be more explicit in the horizontal clauses providing for the incorporation of the Charter into the Treaty, especially in order to allay the fears that some people have expressed. The Charter is not in itself a source of competences or a legal basis that will enable the Union to pass legislative measures. It is a source of reference for the values that must be present in all EU policies.
By the same token, the Charter does not in any way limit the competences of the Member States. It does not replace the system of Member States in the field of human rights, and is not designed to replace the role of national constitutions. I therefore share the rapporteur’s opinion emphasising that the Charter must now be given binding legal force and a constitutional status, in accordance with modalities to be decided and which will depend on the future structure of the Treaties
It appears that two alternative solutions are being drawn up for this matter. Firstly, one which in fact deserves the support of the majority of the members of the Working Group, the incorporation of the entire Charter, in the form of a title or first chapter in the Constitutional Treaty. Alternatively, the inclusion in the work of the Constitutional Treaty of an article referring to the Charter containing the entire text of the Charter, dealt with in a specific section of the Constitutional Treaty or in a protocol.
It is also quite legitimate at the current juncture not to attempt to amend the provisions of the Charter before they are validated in the Constitutional Treaty. The Charter represents the political commitment of the previous Convention, which this Convention must respect. This does not mean, however, that some technical adaptations should not be made, especially with regard to the so-called ‘general’ or ‘horizontal’ clauses. The ‘Charter’ Working Group has been working on this matter and the aim is to come up with adaptations that do not affect the substance of the provisions and are instead designed merely to clarify the meaning of the current horizontal rules.
The European Parliament and the Commission have always looked favourably on acceding to the European Convention on Human Rights. The rapporteur reiterates this point of view, which I welcome. The members of the ‘Charter’ Working Group take the view that the Union’s accession to the European Convention is fully compatible with enshrining a charter with constitutional value and binding legal force. In this regard I believe that the result achieved by this working group will also receive a very broad consensus. If the Union does indeed accede to the Treaty, it will become subject to external control, which is entirely in line with that exercised by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg over the Constitutional or Supreme Courts of the Member States. In this sense there is no subordinate relationship between Courts and nor is the independence of the European Community’s legal system affected.
This issue is closely linked to that of the future legal personality of the Union. The task of the Convention is indeed going to focus on incorporating a constitutional provision into the Constitutional Treaty to enable the Union to negotiate accession in practical terms with the Council of Europe and to decide, in accordance with normal procedure, when accession should take place and under what conditions, without in any way undermining the individual commitments of each Member State to the European Convention on Human Rights and its additional protocols.
I sincerely hope that incorporating the Charter into the Constitutional Treaty and the Union’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights will constitute two fundamental milestones in the process of giving the European Union a constitution that acknowledges the values and principles of fundamental rights."@en1
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