Brussels, 16/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 16 April, the European Commission published its second annual report on the Charter of Fundamental Rights - a report in which, it states in a press release, it particularly notes that the concerns linked to fundamental rights are “increasingly embedded in EU policy-making”. According to a Eurobarometer survey published the same day, the Commission adds that citizens are ever more aware of the Charter (64% of all people surveyed, compared to 48% in 2007) even though detailed knowledge about when the Charter applies remains limited and only 45% of citizens' letters to the Commission on fundamental rights issues concerned situations in which the Charter could apply. In its report, the Commission considers that it has made fundamental rights into a “reality”. For example, travellers will be entitled to opt out of security scanning at EU airports and be screened using other methods thanks to Commission action to take on board privacy concerns in a new EU law.
In its press release, the Commission also explains that in the context of the Charter, the Commission has also been able to open a series of procedures against Hungary and its controversial reforms included in its new constitution. The Commission pointed out that it has “expressed its concerns about the independence of Hungary's data protection authority and measures regarding the retirement age of judges, prosecutors and public notaries”.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has also increasingly referred to the Charter, particularly in its decisions relating to discrimination based on gender and private life on the internet, explained the Commission. In 2011, the number of rulings quoting fundamental rights laid down in the Charter rose by 50% at both EU and national level. One such landmark ruling by the EU's Court of Justice stressed the right of asylum seekers to protection from inhuman or degrading treatment when clarifying EU rules for determining which country should deal with an asylum application. The decision effectively banned transfers of asylum seekers to countries where inadequate conditions would compromise their fundamental rights, explained the Commission. And in March 2011, the Court ruled in the Test-Achats case that different premiums for men and women constitute sex discrimination. (SP/transl.fl)