Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-12-14-Speech-2-011"
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"en.20101214.5.2-011"2
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"Mr President, the debate today on the fundamental rights situation in the European Union is very important, not only because it comes 10 years after the proclamation of the charter – the anniversary of the charter was at the beginning of this month – but also because it is the first discussion in Parliament dedicated to that which the rapporteur, Ms Gál, calls the ‘new post-Lisbon fundamental rights architecture’. She is absolutely right. We have started with a new beginning for the meaning of human rights and fundamental rights in Europe. I would like to thank the rapporteur and the members of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs for their very valuable contribute to this debate.
We now have a legally binding charter which is part of the EU’s primary legislation. What we need to do now is to put the charter into practice. It was precisely for this reason that, in October, the Commission adopted a communication on the strategy for the effective implementation of the charter. The key objective for the Commission here is to make the rights enshrined in the charter as effective as possible for the benefit of all the people living in the EU and, as Members of this House, you represent those people.
The charter must be our compass and we must lead by example, in particular, when we legislate. This applies to the Commission’s internal preparation work and to adoption by the European Parliament and the Council, as well as to the application of the new rules by the Member States.
The Commission has enforced a systematic assessment of the fundamental rights impact of new legislative proposals through a fundamental rights checklist to be used by all Commission departments. I am pleased to see that Ms Gál’s report supports this approach. It highlights, in particular, how important it is for the European Parliament and for the Council to pay attention to compliance with the charter throughout the legislative process. Not only must the text on the table comply with the charter, but the effects of later amendments to that text must be taken into account as well. Each institution therefore needs to think about how to ensure that amendments to legislative proposals are properly assessed. I welcome the call in the report for improved cooperation among the institutions.
We also have to see how the charter is applied when Member States implement EU law. I would like to reiterate in this House that I will not shy away from starting infringement proceedings whenever necessary.
The report also highlights the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights. The speedy accession of the European Union to the Convention is a high priority for the Commission. Negotiations are well under way, and are moving forward in a swift and constructive manner. If everything goes well, as seems to be the case, I hope that we will be able to reach a final agreement in the first half of 2011. So things are moving quickly and they are moving well.
I also fully share the objective of ensuring smooth cooperation with international organisations. We do this as a matter of course, on a daily basis. The Commission already takes into account the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child when it prepares new proposals which can affect children. Recently, we also had a discussion about the disabled, and it is clear that in that field, too, we are applying the United Nations Convention in the Member States and at European Union level.
The rapporteur spoke about the Agency for Fundamental Rights, which has a key role to play in providing us with comparable and reliable data on the situation in the 27 Member States in areas where the EU can act. There, too, we want to work not only in theory but in practice. I have, for instance, asked the agency to contribute to the work of the Roma task force. The Commission is in favour of extending the mandate of the agency to ensure that it can also provide its expertise in the areas of judicial cooperation in criminal matters and police cooperation. To make this possible, on 2 December, the Commission adopted a proposal to amend the multiannual framework, which lists the thematic areas in which the agency can work.
I should now like to move on to something new, which I think tallies perfectly with the rapporteur’s line, and that is the momentum created by the Lisbon Treaty which we have to uphold. With this in mind, in spring 2011, the Commission will publish its first annual report on the application of the charter. The idea is for this to be published as an annual report every spring. I believe this would be the time for Parliament to come in and provoke a real debate on how the charter is being applied in practice. When we prepare our first annual report on the application of the charter in spring 2011, I will pay particular attention to the European Parliament’s report, and to Parliament’s other fundamental rights activities. This will not only allow us to hold a debate on human rights outside the European Union, as is customary in this House, but it will also allow us to hold a yearly debate on fundamental rights and how they are applied by the different governments inside the European Union, as well as to see whether the European institutions are doing their jobs as they should be."@en1
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