Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-03-Speech-2-099"
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"en.20001003.3.2-099"2
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".
The Convention entrusted with the task of drafting the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union yesterday completed its work in Brussels at the end of a formal sitting which enabled all the delegations (European Parliament, Commission, national parliaments and government representatives) to express their approval. President Roman Herzog was therefore able to officially convey the final draft to the French Presidency in readiness for the Biarritz Summit. The European Parliament will give its opinion on this text at a later date by giving their formal assent.
Today, the two oral questions addressed by the chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Mr Napolitano, to the European Commission and the Council, give us an opportunity to discuss the legal status of this Charter and, above all, to restate our determination to make the Charter binding and to have it incorporated into a treaty.
We already expressed this desire when we voted on the last resolution on this subject on 16 March 2000. We are well aware that there is a great deal of reluctance and that there is a great risk that we shall see a purely declaratory Charter adopted. To avoid such a pass, which would disappoint the legitimate expectations of the citizens of Europe, we had to look to an alternative solution. That is why I voted in favour of this resolution and supported the amendment tabled by the chairwoman of the French Socialist delegation, Pervenche Berès, urging the Biarritz Summit to ask the IGC to examine all the ways in which the Charter might be incorporated into the Treaty, as a preamble, protocol or a reference to the Charter enshrined in Article 6, which stipulates that the European Union is based on the principles of freedom, democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as on the notion of the rule of law. The latter formula would make it possible to make the text binding in nature while, for the moment, avoiding a debate on the constitutive character of the preamble option.
That would be an interim solution which would make it possible to work towards a binding Charter in the long term.
In terms of content, this Charter obviously does not go as far as I had hoped. Incidentally, a number of not insignificant victories are attributable to the European Socialists. I am thinking of the inclusion of such rights as the right to strike, the right to work, the implicit reference to European trade unions, the entitlement to housing allowance. Certainly, the content of this Charter must be improved. This is the reason why we must support the debate right up to the Nice Summit. In this respect, there is another amendment which seeks to specify that the Convention should continue to be the only body authorised to draft the Charter until it is definitively adopted (in order to put a stop to the urges on the part of this or that institution to amend it).
I shall conclude by emphasising that the Charter of Fundamental Rights must be seen as the central element in the process required to endow the European Union with a proper constitution, which, as far as I am concerned, is still a priority objective for the next three to four years."@en1
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