Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-05-05-Speech-3-493"
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"en.20100505.75.3-493"2
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"Madam President, Minister, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, our debate today is one of the momentous occasions in the life of the European Union. We are discussing here today something that years ago seemed an insurmountable obstacle: the mandate of the Commission when negotiating the EU’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights. That Convention was ratified 60 years ago this year, and over these 60 years it has given many citizens faith that justice could be found even against their own state. What Commissioner Reding has already mentioned is closely related to this debate, and therefore should be emphasised again and again, namely that since December the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union has become legally binding. This document is among the most progressive documents in the field of fundamental rights.
The Convention reinforces the Charter and the Charter supplements the Convention. Since December, the Treaty of Lisbon commits the EU to join the Convention on Human Rights. Therefore our objective must be to ensure that implementation is as successful as possible. The most important question here is what added value joining the Convention will bring to the life of EU citizens. My report on joining the Convention had been prepared with this in mind, and was unanimously ratified by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. Therefore I would like to ask the Council and the Commission to do all they can during the negotiations to ensure that joining the Convention really delivers value, an added value for the citizens of the EU, without raising exaggerated expectations.
At the same time, several questions need to be clarified during the negotiations. One of these substantial issues is the relationship between the courts. It is also a precondition that internal legal remedies be fully exhausted first. At the same time I believe it is important to take into account during the negotiations that the reform of the operation of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg will coincide with the accession of the EU to the Convention. The EU’s accession to the Convention will be a unique experiment, but this must not threaten anything that is already functioning with regard to the enforcement of human rights. Accession to the Convention can be successful only if it truly reinforces the already functioning institutions and allows citizens access to them. We should take care not to endanger this process and make sure that in our surge of enthusiasm we do not throw the baby out with the bathwater, as the Hungarian saying so aptly puts it. I believe that this is a very important moment and that we are on the right path. I would ask the Commission and the Council to define their mandate and conduct the forthcoming negotiations reinforcing the above."@en1
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