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Press Service |
The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights |
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| At the Cologne summit on 4 June 1999 it was decided that a Charter on Fundamental Rights of the European Union should be drawn up. The European Council stated "There appears to be a need, at the present stage of the Union's development, to establish a Charter of fundamental rights in order to make their overriding importance and relevance more visible to the Union's citizens." | |
| The charter is to include the general rights of liberty and equality as well as fundamental rights that pertain only to the Union's citizens. It must also take account of economic and social rights. | |
Introduction |
The European Parliament, which had been calling for such a charter for many years, warmly welcomed this decision. In its resolution of 16 September 1999 on the Cologne European Council, Parliament said the Charter represented "one of its constitutional priorities" and stressed the need "for an open and innovative approach to shaping the Charter, the nature of the rights to be featured in it, and the part it will play and the status it will command in the constitutional development of the Union". |
| Background
Info Press Releases |
Role and composition of the Convention |
| The European Council entrusted the task of drafting the Charter to a Convention
made up of 15 representatives of heads of state or government, 16 Members of the European
Parliament, 30 members of national parliaments and a Commissioner representing the
President of the Commission.
The constituent sitting of the Convention was held on 17 December 1999. Since then it has met regularly, either in Parliament's Brussels buildings or at the Council. The Bureau of the Convention, which acts as a "drafting committee" or collective rapporteur, consists of the President, Roman Herzog, and representatives of the European Parliament (Mr Méndez de Vigo), the national parliaments (Mr Jansson), the Commission (Mr Vitorino) and the Council Presidency (Mr Bacelar). |
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| Working method | |
| The committee successively drafts the various categories of rights and submits them when they ar e ready to the Convention, which then, in the form of a working party, examines them. On the basis of these discussions, the committee will finalise its draft, section by section, and present it to plenary sittings of the Convention. The Convention (meeting formally or informally) will then hold hearings with NGOs, organisations with an interest in the issue of fundamental rights and EU applicant countries. Dates and practical details have yet to be decided. | |
| Timetable | |
| The Convention has decided to adopt definitively the draft version of the Charter
at its sixth plenary sitting on 11-12 September, in time for it to be considered by the
Biarritz European Council on October 2000.
The Convention has organised its work in such a way as to have a preliminary draft version of the Charter (of a provisional, indicative nature) ready for the European summit in Feira on 19-20 June. This will enable the European Council to decide whether the Charter should be included in the topics for consideration by the intergovernmental conference on the revision of the treaties. |
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| The European Parliament's role | |
| The role of Parliament's delegation to the Convention is identical to that of the representatives of the Member States and the national parliaments. This is thus the first case in which the EP is being involved in a process which could result in a decision of a "constitutional" nature. |