Doc. 8542

23 September 1999

European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights

The risk of confusion and duplication of effort in the event of such a Charter being integrated into treaties of the European Union

Motion for a resolution

presented by Mr Lekberg and others

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and only expresses the views of the members who have signed it

1.       The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the main guardian of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe, welcomes any strengthening that these principles may enjoy also within the European Union.

2.       In its Resolution 1068 (1995) on the Accession of the European Community to the European Convention on Human Rights, the Assembly noted that the “Convention constitutes an unparalleled framework for the safeguard of fundamental rights and freedoms in Europe, and that the protection afforded by the Convention’s institutions should be extended to all persons affected by European Community law”.

3.       The resolution went on to state that accession by the European Union to the Convention would strengthen the safeguard of human rights in Europe, ensure effective protection of the rights of Community citizens and establish coherence in the system for safeguarding fundamental rights, while avoiding any risk of parallel interpretation for the Convention’s provisions by the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Communities. The Assembly expressed the hope that the Community would therefore soon submit its formal application for accession to the European Convention on Human Rights.

4.       However, the Court of Justice of the European Communities, in its Opinion 2/94 of
28 March 1996, stated that “as Community law now stands, the Community has no competence to accede to the European Convention on Human Rights”, and that the Court was not in a position to give its opinion on the compatibility of Community accession to the Convention with the rules of the Treaty.

5.       In its Recommendation 1365 (1998), the Assembly noted that the European Union’s Amsterdam Treaty gives increased competence to the Union in areas in which the Council of Europe has been active for many years and in which it has established a considerable acquis. The Assembly – while welcoming the strengthening of human rights protection within the Union achieved through the Treaty – nevertheless recalled that accession by the European Community (and the Union, once it acquires an international legal personality) to the European Convention on Human Rights would further strengthen this protection and eliminate the current risk of diverging case-law systems as between the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights.

6.       Furthermore, Assembly Recommendation 1365 (1998) called on the Committee of Ministers actively to promote the accession of the European Community (Union) to all Council of Europe Conventions which foresee the possibility, as well as to the European Convention on Human Rights.

7.       The Assembly against this background notes that the European Union’s European Council, as its meeting in Cologne on 3 and 4 June 1999, decided to draw up a Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The draft of such a Charter is to be prepared by representatives of the Heads of State and Government, the President of the Commission and members of the European Parliament and national parliaments, and presented in time for the meeting of the European Council in December 2000. The European Council is to propose to the European Parliament and the Commission that, together with the Council, they proclaim, on the basis of the draft in question, a European Charter of Fundamental Rights, following which “it will then have to be considered whether, and if so, how the Charter should be integrated into the treaties”.

8.       The Assembly on the one hand stresses the importance of involving the Council of Europe in the drawing up of such a Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. More importantly it believes, however, that such a Charter should not be integrated into the treaties of the European Union, as this would doubtless result in parallel interpretations of the Convention’s provisions by the European Court of Human Rights on the one hand, and the Court of Justice of the European Communities on the other. In the member states of the European Union – all of which are also members of the Council of Europe – but also in EU candidate countries, once they become members of the European Union, there would be great confusion, overlap of activities and potential conflict between two such instruments and the bodies responsible for their observance.

9.       The Assembly therefore calls on the Parliaments of the European Union’s member states to renew their efforts in favour of the accession of the Community (Union) to the Council of Europe’s European Convention on Human Rights, and in the meantime to do their utmost to prevent the granting of treaty value to any European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Signed: ¹

Lekberg, Sweden, SOC

Arnold, Denmark, LDR

Bergqvist, Sweden, SOC

Billing, Sweden, EDG

Bindig, Germany, SOC

Björck, Sweden, EDG

Calner, Sweden, SOC

Davis, United Kingdom, SOC

Elo, Finland, SOC

Von der Esch, Sweden, EPP/CD

Gjellerod, Denmark, SOC

Jäättenmäki, Finland, LDR

Jansson, Finland, LDR

Laakso, Finland, UEL

Magnusson, Sweden, SOC

Mikaelsson, Sweden, UEL

Wohlwend, Liechtenstein, EPP/CD

¹        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party

      EDG:European Democratic Group

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      UEL : Group of the Unified European Left

      NR : Not registered in a group