Brussels, 30/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - The debate at the European Convention on the results of the Working Group on fundamental rights chaired by Commissioner Vitorino showed that nothing stands in the way of the Charter of Fundamental Rights being incorporated in the future Constitutional Treaty although discussions are still underway into the place it should be given. A number of Convention members reject the horizontal measures supported by British members and a few others in order to water down the Charter's principles. France is the only country staunchly opposed to the EU joining the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), but the measures to be added to the draft Treaty would simply authorise the EU to join in line with a procedure requiring unanimous voting at the Council to start the process of joining the ECHR.
The British government representative Peter Hain stressed the importance of the horizontal measures that the Working Group was proposing to incorporate in the Charter to guarantee the respect of Member States' constitutional traditions and strengthen the distinction between the objective rights it contains and the social principles it espouses. He came out against the incorporation of the full Charter in the constitutional part of the treaty, wanting it to be included in a separate document and simply be referred to in the first part of the future treaty. Italian deputy prime minister Gianfranco Fini and the Danish government representative Henning Christophersen supported rearranging the Charter's horizontal measures and incorporating it through a reference. The Dutch government representative Gijs de Vries said he shared the British position and called for the EU to join the ECHR, but Dutch deputy René van der Linden (who also favours the EU joining the ECHR) called or the full Charter to be incorporated in the Treaty, adding that the British government should make an effort too. The Bulgarian government representative Neli Kuskova called for a reference in the treaty, while the Bulgarian deputy Alexander Arabadjiev wanted the full Charter to be incorporated, as did Luxembourg deputy Ben Fayot. This view is shared by Belgian Socialist MEP Anne Van Lancker, who said the future Constitution would need a preamble and this could be provided by the Charter, which would avoid the need for a long debate on the contents of the new preamble.
French Socialist MEP Olivier Duhamel said the additions the Working Group was proposing concerning Member States' constitutional traditions (stressing that they were already included in the Charter) and the wording on the Charter's scope being restricted to the competencies of the EU (already in the text) were "pointless", describing the new measures distinguishing between rights and principles as "retrograde".
He said the Charter text foresaw that principles had to be promoted, while the text planned by the Working Group would stipulate that they could be implemented. Through wanting to continually reassure a tiny minority of governments, said Duhamel, one ran the risk of making civil society despair, arguing for the new horizontal measures to be rejected.
The Bundestag representative Jürgen Meyer said, however, that the measures had been required to strike consensus at the Working Group but they changed nothing fundamental. This view was not shared by Austrian deputy Caspar Einem, who echoed Duhamel in calling for the full Charter to be incorporated in the new treaty.
Duhamel was also supported by PDS MEP Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann, who argued against a reference to the explanations drafted by the Praesidium of the previous Convention "on its own responsibility". The French government representative Pierre Moscovici wanted the full Charter to be incorporated in the draft Treaty and expressed doubts about the limits that people wanted to introduce to the legal value of the principles it contains.
He pointed out France's opposition to the EU joining the ECHR, but joined other Convention Members in calling for citizens to be given the right to appeal to the Court of Justice.
Reacting to the various speakers, Commissioner Antonio Vitorino said that the amendments proposed for the horizontal measures would not change the content of the Charter, admitting that some of them were redundant.
In terms of the EU joining the ECHR, he said the June 1993 European Council of Copenhagen had made candidate countries join the ECHR and it would be "odd" if the EU refused to stick to the same rules. It's hardly a revolution, he said, noting that Member States could already be taken to the European Court of Human Rights for action taken to implement European standards.