Brussels, 13/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The three colleges (European Parliament, national parliaments and representatives of the fifteen Heads of State or Government of the convention charged with developing the Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights completed, on Tuesday evening, the examination of many amendments to the draft Charter diffused at the end of the month of July (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.4). Their respective positions and that adopted by the European Commission (see following article) are now to be confronted by the Praesidium within the drafting committee (made up of the chairmen of the three components: Mr Vendez de Vigo for the EP, Mr Jansson for the national parliaments and Mr Braibant for the governments). By 20 September, it is to propose a revised draft that could be the subject of consensus during the plenary session on 25 and 26 September, before being forwarded to the European Council of Biarritz on 13 and 14 October.
The revised version of the draft Charter is expected to bring many editorial changes but also to allow some provisions to be strengthened. This text will, however, nonetheless remain a compromise, with all its imperfections, but should reflect an acceptable balance between positions which, in the beginning, were very far from each other. All the parties present agreed that the explanatory part would not have any official status. Even though there is divergence over certain aspects, the different component parts also supported strengthening of economic and social rights. The main doubt remaining today concerns the inclusion or not of the right to strike. The European Commission and the delegation of the European Parliament are in favour of this, although consensus has not been reached on this either within the college of representatives of national parliaments (even though a majority supports the idea) nor that of government representatives.
As we pointed out yesterday, the European Parliament delegation reached consensus on a new wording for Article 26 as follows: "Organisations of workers and employers or their organisations have the right, including at European level to negotiate and conclude collective agreements and, in cases of conflicts of interest, to take collective action to defend their interests in particular the right to strike, in accordance with Community law and national laws and practices". All the amendments which are the subject of consensus were gathered in a document with which Mr Mendes de Vigo will now negotiate within the drafting committee.
The personal representatives of the Heads of State and Government also reached consensus which should be defended by their president within the drafting committee. This consensus remains, however, quite fragile in so far as only 10 Member States were initially willing to accept the draft Charter with improvements. Three countries (Spain, Netherlands and Sweden) had expressed serious reservation, mainly concerning collective expulsions and the right of residence. Two others (United Kingdom and Ireland) said they were prepared to reject the text if certain social rights appeared in it. The result was that the right to strike should not appear in the final draft, but some observers note that this is implicitly understood from collective action. On the other hand, Article 26 could refer to the representatives of employers and workers as well as to the European level of their negotiations. The amendment proposed in Article 32 by Mr Vitorino on the right to social society payments for any person living or moving legally within the EU was accepted by the representatives of governments.
On the side of the representatives of national parliaments, "majority" positions were noted, as consensus had not been reached. A majority was reached for a wording similar to that of the EP concerning Article 26 and the introduction of the right to strike. The same is true for Article 15 and the introduction of the right to work. A majority also felt that the freedom of enterprise should be integrated in paragraph 2 of Article 15 (professional freedom) so it is not given a value that is different from that of the other freedoms (as this would entail suppression of Article 16). The representatives of national parliaments also took a stance in favour of the addition of artistic and academic freedoms in Article 13 on freedom of research. The introduction of conscientious objection in Article 10 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion) also met with broad agreement. Equality between men and women should be included in every sphere and not just in the professional sector.