Charter of Fundamental Rights
- The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights was adopted in Nice in December 2000 (Photo: French EU Presidency)
Fundamental rights now at EU level under control of the EU Court in Luxembourg.
The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights was adopted in Nice December 2000 as a political declaration. It contains 54 articles mainly collected from the European Convention on Human Rights. They are divided into the following areas:
- Dignity
- Freedoms
- Equality
- Solidarity
- Citizens' Rights
- Justice
The EU Court said it was willing to take the Charter into account in its judgements, even if it was not made legally binding. The EU Court has already referred to the Charter in several cases. From 1 December 2009 it is formally legally binding accoring toi Art. 6 TEU in the Lisbon Treaty.
Notes
- The Charter was established by a special Convention consisting of 30 representatives from national Parliaments, 16 from the European Parliament, one from the EU Commission, and one from each of the 15 governments.
The Lisbon Treaty recognises the rights, freedoms and principles set out in the Charter in Art. 6 TEU. The whole text was printed as Part Two of the constitutional treaty (Article I-7).
The Charter sets out the rights of EU citizens in the post-Lisbon EU, which has legal personality for the first time and whose founding treaties confer an "additional" citizenship on the citizens of the Member States.
The amended Charter was solemnly adopted by the heads of the European Parliament, Council and Commission in the European Parliament on 12 December 2007 and was printed in the Official Journal, C 303, on 14 December 2007.
Links
See also the Convention working group on the Charter
Bonde website http://www.bonde.com/
European COnvention http://european-Convention.eu.......nt/docs/sessPlen/00369.en2.PDF
http://ue.eu.int/df/default.asp?lang=en
