Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-11-14-Speech-2-054"
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"en.20001114.2.2-054"2
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".
Mr President, Minister, ladies and gentlemen, first of all the Commission would like to endorse the comments made by the President-in-Office, Mr Moscovici, and to welcome the key contribution made by the Members of the European Parliament to the debate and indeed to the Convention, particularly the role played by Mr Méndez de Vigo in the Praesidium of the Convention drafting the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
I should also like to highlight the very important role played by President Herzog, who not only urged us to draft the Charter as if it were to become a binding text, an essential condition, but also had a crucial role to play in the political negotiations, enabling us to arrive at a consensus which, I believe, we can present to the citizens of Europe as a shared European vision regarding the role of fundamental rights in our shared venture to see the emergence of the European Union of the twenty-first century.
A great deal has already been said on the matter of the added value of this Charter. I should just like to stress two points which the Commission sees as essential. Firstly, the principle that rights are indivisible. The principle that political, economic and social rights are indivisible cannot be seen as a minor matter or a way of settling accounts with the past. Quite the opposite. The principle of the indivisibility of fundamental rights is a political compromise with regard to the future, especially at a time when some people think that untrammelled globalisation or the hegemony/dominance of the financial markets must be guaranteed by sacrificing citizens’ social rights.
It is important to state that this Charter is not a slave to any particular ideology. It is subject only to the key concept of the worth of the human being within the construction of Europe in the first place, and secondly to a certain vision of the social model, a social model in which solidarity and respect for fundamental rights are compatible with economic competitiveness at world level. This is no minor matter; it is a political Charter for the future.
There is a second added value, which is the principle that fundamental rights are universal. In this respect I should like to point out that here, for the first time, a European Union document is making it perfectly clear that the rights listed in the Charter are, for the most part, applicable to all individuals regardless of nationality or even right of residence. This is an important amalgamation at a time when the European Union is required to define the legal status, in terms of rights and duties, of third country nationals legally resident within the European Union.
Obviously, this Charter is just a beginning. I see it as a foundation stone providing a basis for social development, even insofar as its legal status is concerned. I think the objective of ensuring the indivisibility of fundamental rights is critical, and that the Council, the Commission and Parliament should make special efforts to publish and distribute the Charter among European citizens, but I am quite sure that, above and beyond the political instructional quality of the Charter, its legal impact is going to make itself felt, particularly with regard to the institutions proclaiming it. I am convinced that the Commission, the Council and Parliament itself will not be able to ignore the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union when acting, in future, in a legislative or executive capacity. I am convinced, moreover, that the European Court of Justice will not be able to ignore the Charter either. In this respect I am disappointed to hear the criticisms of legal activism which have been made, as I, in fact, wonder whether the greatest incentive to activism is not specifically provided by Article 6(2) of the Treaty, which refers to the vague, abstract concept of the shared constitutional tradition of the fifteen Member States, instead of referring to a Charter containing 48 clear, readable articles.
Finally, you are aware that the Commission is of the opinion that the Convention has drawn up a text which is destined, sooner or later, to be incorporated into the Treaties. We might even describe the incorporation of the Charter into the Treaties and recognition of its binding legal status as a two-step process. It is destined to be incorporated in to the Treaties and the Commission thinks this should be fully realised as part of the reorganisation of the treaties we proposed at the Intergovernmental Conference, which we hope the European Council will be able to approve in Nice. In the immediate future, however, it would be inconceivable if, on the very day on which the Heads of State and Government are to formally proclaim the Charter, they were to fail to make reference to it in Article 6(2) of the Treaties. I place my faith in the French Presidency’s commitment to obtaining as early as Nice a consensus which at least recognises the reference to the Charter as the inspiration for fundamental rights within the European Union."@en1
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