Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-12-Speech-3-094"
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"en.20071212.17.3-094"2
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"However much some may shout to try to stop others from speaking, this is a fundamental date in the history of Europe. And I want to say to you too that this date, this ceremony, is probably the most important ceremony in which I have had the honour of participating. The most important ceremony of my entire political career.
This is why the citizens of Europe can, in this way, recognise themselves in a Union that is their Union. They can recognise the rights that the Union guarantees them and realise that Europe is a project of peace and democracy, a project in which the rights of the individual are fully respected. It is our moral authority and it is the sentiment of this ceremony that unites the three institutions. We are proclaiming this Charter on the eve of the signing of the Treaty of Lisbon, a Charter which has the legal status of a basic law and a legal status which is equal to that of the Treaties, for the benefit of many and to the displeasure of some. This Charter is in the Treaty.
I feel deeply honoured as a European to sign a Charter and to proclaim a Charter of Fundamental Rights and I feel particularly honoured that this Charter is being proclaimed during the Portuguese Presidency. I feel honoured as a European and I feel honoured as a Portuguese citizen, especially as it was during our Presidency in 2000 that the Convention which gave rise to this Charter started its work. That is why I want to say to the European Parliament that it is an honour for my country to be associated in this way with an important step in the project of European citizenship.
This Charter represents a commitment to values that gave birth to European civilisation, values anchored in the defence of human dignity, and we are here to proclaim that we are true to those values, values that have their source in the constitutional tradition common to the Member States of the Union and also in international legal instruments, as in the case of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. And to emphasise this compatibility, the Treaty of Lisbon itself provides for the Union to accede to the Council of Europe Convention and thus recognises what the protection of fundamental rights now represents in modern democracies.
This is why today is a such an exceptional day because from today on, though some may not like it, fundamental rights will be formally and irreversibly established as part of the Union’s common heritage, a moral heritage, a political heritage, a heritage of citizenship and of the best aspects of European civilization.
But this Charter is also an instrument for political action, an instrument for the institutions because the Charter will shape their activities. They will be duty bound to respect the rights and principles set out in the Charter and promote the application of those rights and principles, but it is also an instrument for action by the citizens because it shows that the project of the Union is a project of citizenship and it shows that the Union is at the service of its citizens and that it protects and promotes their rights.
The Charter embodies, in the European context, the projection of human dignity and the rule of social rights. This is why it also has a social component, because it projects human dignity in the world of work, in the world of employment, in the world of health, in the field of social security and welfare, and also human dignity with regard to protection of the environment. It is the Charter of equality and solidarity, the Charter of the battle against discrimination of any kind, and it is a Charter for equality because it enshrines a special attention, the special attention that we pay to children and young people, to equality between men and women, to the role of old people, and to the substantial issues of protecting personal rights and personal data.
I must also draw attention to the freedoms that are enshrined in the Charter, the freedoms connected with European citizenship and the political rights associated with it, and the economic freedoms based on the Treaty of Rome, whose 50th anniversary we are celebrating this year. We are therefore true to our tradition and we repeat the ban on the death penalty, and I especially welcome the decision taken by the Council last week to mark the European Day against the Death Penalty.
Finally, I should like to point out that the Charter covers the rights of citizens and the rights of people, addressing a body that extends beyond the actual citizens of the Member States, and this is no less important because it represents, as of today, a fundamental element in our conviction that a better world is a world in which these rights and freedoms are universally respected.
This Charter, as of today, will be at the service of the external policy of the European Union which aims to establish a world in which all these rights and freedoms are universally respected and guaranteed. It will therefore act as a pointer, a pointer to the position of the European Union on the international stage and in any action that is proposed to secure global respect for fundamental rights."@en1
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"(Renewed uproar in the NI and IND/DEM ranks)"1
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