Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-14-Speech-2-142"
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"en.20000314.8.2-142"2
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"Mr President, the lawful object of the Charter of Rights is to protect the legitimate rights, expectations and aspirations of the citizen against the oppressive behaviour of government, business or other citizens; and it is, of course, right that people should be thus safeguarded in respect of the European institutions and their activities. However, having said that, the crucial matter is not the existence of a Charter but the proper safeguarding of the citizen, and the means by which the citizen achieves such protection today vary from Member State to Member State. In view of the Community’s normal legislative practice, I am somewhat surprised that it was not felt that this should be achieved by going with the grain of the established legal and administrative mechanisms of each Member State.
In other words, policy should be implemented along the lines of a directive rather than a regulation. For example, I was speaking recently with some very senior judges in Germany who were clear, on the basis of the history and traditions of their country, that these matters should be contained in a justiciable charter. But my own country has a very different tradition in this respect, as our own Prime Minister has made clear, and it is not part of the United Kingdom’s tradition to safeguard the citizen in this way. We do it differently and no less effectively. I think it is very relevant that the present socialist United Kingdom government is committed to ensuring that the Charter is non-justiciable and does not extend beyond existing rights to those not currently contained in the treaties.
Mr President, for those countries which have a long tradition of directly, legally binding charters, a development of the kind proposed is not dramatic. But for those which do not, it is a very radical step; and in the meantime, I will keep a very close watch on the United Kingdom and what it may say and do about all this."@en1
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