Nice, 07/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Charter of Fundamental Rights was, as foreseen, "proclaimed" on 7 December in Nice, on the occasion of the European Council. At 15h00, the president of the European Parliament Nicole Fontaine, European Commission President Romano Prodi and European Council President Jacques Chirac signed the Charter. But no speech, however short, was delivered, as the French Presidency apparently did not consider this to be indispensable.
Ms Fontaine told the press shortly afterwards that there had been no declaration although she had prepared a short text for this occasion ("I integrated it into my speech for opening the European Council", she specified). In the declaration foreseen for this ceremony, Ms Fontaine said above all: "Signing means committing oneself, in the everyday life of citizens, as in the most solemn official acts (…) so that all Union citizens know, from now on, even though it may be in anticipation of the full legal transcription into the Treaty, that the Charter will be law for the Assembly (…) It will henceforth be our reference for all acts by the European Parliament which have a direct or indirect link with the citizens throughout the Union".
President Prodi also had prepared a brief address in which he affirmed that the proclamation marked the commitment of institutions to "respect the Charter in all actions and in all policies of the Union". The Charter is the "tool allowing the exercise of Community powers to be controlled, with respect to fundamental rights", and Europeans "can count on the Commission to respect it in every aspect of Union life, both within the Union and in its relations with third countries", stresses the text of the Commission president, who hopes also that it will be possible to "envisage, with serenity, the insertion of the Charter in the Union's constituent treaties, as the Commission would like as soon as possible".
Answering questions during her press conference on the subject of knowing whether "all hope is lost of the Charter entering the Treaty", Ms Fontaine replied: "Not at all". She went on to add: "We should at least have liked a reference to the Charter in Article 6 of the revised Treaty, but two or three member States are really very, very irritated about this idea", whereas it would "seem that the declaration to accompany the signing of the Treaty, if there is a Treaty, explicitly mentions the legal value of the Charter as part of the post-Nice process".
To the press question: "Is not the fact that one thousand Italians from a political party represented at the European Parliament (La Lega Nord) had been blocked at the border between Italy and France violation of the Article of the Charter which embodies free movement within the Union? Ms Fontaine replied: "I do not know the circumstances of this incident". She did state however that "violence is never the right way to get democratic ideas across". She then spoke of the "dignified" demonstration organised by the trade unions, adding it is a positive fact that, "finally, the citizens come and tell us what they want, even if we do not agree".