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Welcome.
In this lecture,
I will talk about the protection of
fundamental rights in the European Union.
In order to follow this lecture, I suggest
that you have access to our Articles 6 and
19 of the Treaty of the European Union and
the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Originally conceived as a general
principle of EU law in the 1970s,
the protection of fundamental rights has
become a keystone in the creation of
the internal market.
The first German commissioner to the EU,
Walter Hallstein, noted already in
the 1950s that the then European economic
community was a Rechtsgemeinschaft, or
a community of the law.
I will focus on two provisions of
the Treaty of the European Union.
Article 19 TEU is considered to establish
the rule of law in the European Union.
According to this provision, the Court of
Justice of the European Union shall ensure
that in the interpretation and application
of the treaties, the law is observed.
Member states shall provide
remedies sufficient to
ensure effective legal protection
in the fields covered by union law.
The framework for
the protection of fundamental rights in
the EU is laid down in Article 6 TEU.
There are four levels of protection.
First, according to Article 6.1 TEU, there
is the charter of fundamental rights.
The charter contains
the fundamental rights catalog and
has the same value as the treaties.
Second, according to Article 6.2 TEU,
there is the future excession of the EU
to the convention of human rights.
Third, according to Article 6.3 TEU,
there is also the protection of
fundamental rights through
general principles of EU law.
Finally, under the same provision,
there is the application of
fundamental rights by national courts
through national constitutions.
There is plenty of case law from the Court
of Justice of the European Union,
you will find some judgments in
the reading material for this lecture.
We will now take a closer look at
the four levels of protection.
The charter of fundamental
rights was proclaimed in these,
on 7th of December, 2000.
However, it became legally
binding only in December 2009
when the Lisbon Treaty entered into force.
According to Article 51 of the charter, it
applies only when EU law is applicable and
when the EU member states apply EU law.
However, when the charter applies,
it is binding of the EU institutions as
well as the national institutions and
the national administrations.
Thus, the charter is binding for the
European Court of Justice and the national
courts, the commission and the national
competition authorities, and so on.
The charter is a peculiar document,
since it contains both what is
commonly called hard rights,
as well as soft rights.
Hard rights are rights which concern
the physical integrity of individuals and
the protection from arbitrary
interventions by the state
in the freedom of individuals.
Such rights include the right to dignity,
to life, the ban of torture, and
the ban of capital sentences.
Soft rights, on the other hand, are rights
which are more closely related to
the organization of society and
social aspects of life.
These include rights,
such as the right to a paid holiday,
the right to fair working conditions, and
the right of workers to be consulted.
Naturally, the wide scope
of these rights means that
they all carry a different meaning and
different effects.
The charter distinguishes between rights
and principles in Article 52, Paragraph 5.
It is still not clear how this
distinction should be made.
Also the charter contains
many rights which have
been inspired by other documents.
One such important source of inspiration
is the European Convention of
Human Rights.
You heard it right, the Convention of
Human Rights is applicable also in this
setting and not only under Article 6 TEU.
One reason was to ensure coherence in
the application of fundamental rights in
the EU.
Anyway, other rights, and
now we're talking about many
of the soft social rights,
can also be found in directives which have
been adopted by the European legislator.
Such rights include the right to
paid holiday and the right for
workers to be consulted.
Some of these directives are only
framework directives, and
they are not specific enough
to have direct effect.
In such a situation, the corresponding
right in the charter is also weaker.
Another distinction follows
indirectly from what I just said.
Those rights which correspond to rights
in the Convention of Human Rights must be
interpreted in the light
of that convention.
The EU may choose to provide a higher
level of protection however.
This follows from Article
52.3 of the charter.
All this together shows that
the Convention of Human Rights has
a specific place in EU law.
The EU is supposed to accede to
the Convention of Human Rights.
The Convention of Human Rights has
been applied by the European Court of
Justice as the human rights standard for
quite some time now.
Remember, I just mentioned how
the convention forms a sort
the minimum level according to Article
52.3 of the charter, but apparently,
this was not considered to be enough.
Instead, it was decided that
the EU should become a member of
the Council of Europe and
accede to the convention.
There are many aspects to this question,
but one which is very important,
is the design of the judicial structure
of the relationship between the Court of
Justice of the EU in
Luxembourg on one hand,
and the Court of Human Rights
in Strassburg on the other.
The negotiations for
the excession are well under way.
On the 5th of May 2014,
the Court of Justice had
its hearing on what will
be Opinion Two for 2013.
If the Court of Justice agrees
to the draft accession treaty,
the EU may exceed to
the Convention very soon indeed.
There is the question of
general principles of EU Law.
Let me be brief on this point.
It does not change any
level of rights protection.
For all practical purpose,
the provision in Article 6.3 TEU is
of little importance in this regard.
However, the fourth question,
the role of national constitutions
is potentially important.
According to Article 4.2 TEU,
the EU must respect national identity.
According to Article 6.3 TEU and
the Articles 52.4 and
53 of the charter,
national constitutions play
an important role in the fundamental
rights protection in the EU.
But if it would ever threaten the primacy,
unity, and effectiveness of EU law,
in the face of harmonizing measures
based on mutual recognition,
national constitutions must give
way to the effectiveness of EU law.
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watchers outlines the framework for the
fundamental rights protected in EU law.
It's impossible to cover it all in
one single lecture, but at least now,
we have had a brief overview.
Thank you for tuning in and
see you soon again.
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