Moscow State Academy of Law
The Chair of the European Union Law, The Centre of the European Union Law

Main

Information

Documents

Publications

Papers

Teaching stuff

Links

Contacts

Русский

S.Yu.Kashkin

THE EUROPEAN UNION CHARTER ON FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

The Charter on fundamental rights of the European Union (EU) is the fundamental act in the area of humanitarian rights, adopted by the European Union on December 7, 2000;it is a kind of European Union “Bill of Rights”. The Charter sums up the whole previous development of the ideas of human rights in constitutional and international law, not only in Europe, but also all over the world. The contents and spirit of this important document were influenced by the European Council and by the law regulating human rights that was formed on its basis. The EU Charter has incorporated the basic achievements of the humanitarian law already developed by humankind and at the same time has approached these achievements creatively and in its own way.

The Charter is the first to defend a person not only against the state and its bodies, but also against supranational organizations and their bodies. Unlike the western doctrine of human rights with its traditional division of rights and freedom into major ones, including first of all civil and political rights, and "minor" ones, including the group of social-economic rights, the Charter as a whole considers the legal status of a person and a citizen of the European Union in unity and equality of rights and freedoms, thus demonstrating the principle of unity and nondiscrimination of rights and freedom in the “European variant”.

The Charter brings all personal, political, and social-economic rights together and recognizes them as basic ones. The main idea of the Charter is the declaration of the principle that the European Union “places a person at the center of its activity by means of the introduction of citizenship in the Union and creation of a space of freedom, safety, and justice”. The Charter fixes the rights and freedoms of a person with the help of the seven basic principles-values constituting a uniform complex: the legal status of a person, the principle of respect for human dignity, the principle of the maintenance of the rights and freedoms of the person and the citizen, the principle of equality, the principle of solidarity, the principle of democracy, and the principle of a lawful state. It is especially emphasized that these principles are based on the spiritual, moral, and historical heritage of the people of Europe.

One of the main features of the Charter is a new comprehension of the principle of nonviolence, shown in the aspiration to evolutionary creation without destruction, groundless denying, and violence.

The Charter has also reflected the tendency of the increasing interconnection between humanitarian regulations of constitutional law and international law. This demonstrates the universal tendency of the unification of humanitarian law and its consistent advancement to the leading positions. Together with the planned expansion of the EU, further development will be given to the tendency of territorial expansion of "the European humanitarian law”, as well as to the expansion of its influence as an example or as “the world humanitarian standard”.

The Charter firmly fixes an extended character of securing the rights and freedoms of a person. First of all it demands unconditional observance of the rights and freedoms that are already fixed by current legislation. Besides, whenever possible it provides for the constant addition of rights arising as a result of social progress and scientific and technological development; at the same time, it aspires to fix not the minimum level as it is usually accepted in international legal practice, but the highest achievable maximum level of their number and implementation. At the same time the Charter works as an instrument of acceleration in the creation of civil societies within countries that are members of the EU and the establishment of a civil society within whole European integration group. The democratic globalism of the future can be constructed only on the basis of humanistic regionalism.In this regard states should inevitably transfer some of their powers to a supranational civil society in the course of its development. Supranational civil societies will expand their regional borders in a planetary direction.

The Charter of the European Union on fundamental rights has strengthened and expanded the opportunities of judicial defense of the rights and freedoms of citizens of the EU and other people who stay on the territory of the EU.

The Charter demonstrates the aspiration to provide internal stability and security with the help of the instruments of the rights and freedoms created mostly as a result of the activity of the European Council, to reach a consensus within the framework of the integration group, reducing class, national, and other confrontations to a minimum, whenever possible avoiding rough supranational or state compulsion, peaceful resolution of conflicts arising out of the interests of citizens, balancing interests of individuals, places, regions, and countries within the framework of the Union, providing thus the support to the weak and prospects to the strong, finding effective stimulus and instruments for progress and ways to allow the majority of the population of the European Union to use its fruits.

The character of the Charter allows to see an essentially new tendency of development of the humanitarian law in the 21^st century, searching for legal means of restricting the negative consequences of integration, internationalization, and globalization. The Charter undertakes an attempt to find a new, more harmonious combination of rights and freedoms with duties and civil responsibilities to “human society and future generations”.

Published: “Global Studies: Encyclopedia” – M. Raduga Publishers. 2003. P. 144–145.