EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
1999
 






 
2004
Committee on Constitutional Affairs
26 October 2000
***
DRAFT RECOMMENDATION
on approval of the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights
(C5-00)
Committee on Constitutional Affairs
Rapporteurs: Andrew Nicholas Duff and Johannes Voggenhuber
PR\422857EN.doc
EN
PE 294.705
EN
Symbols for procedures
*
**I
**II
***
***I
***II
***III
Consultation procedure
majority of the votes cast
Cooperation procedure (first reading)
majority of the votes cast
Cooperation procedure (second reading)
majority of the votes cast, to approve the common position
majority of Parliament’s component Members, to reject or amend
the common position
Assent procedure
majority of Parliament’s component Members except in cases
covered by Articles 105, 107, 161 and 300 of the EC Treaty and
Article 7 of the EU Treaty
Codecision procedure (first reading)
majority of the votes cast
Codecision procedure (second reading)
majority of the votes cast, to approve the common position
majority of Parliament’s component Members, to reject or amend
the common position
Codecision procedure (third reading)
majority of the votes cast, to approve the joint text
(The type of procedure depends on the legal basis proposed by the
Commission)
PE 294.705
EN
2/6
PR\422857EN.doc
CONTENTS
Page
PROCEDURAL PAGE .............................................................................................................. 4
A. DRAFT RECOMMENDATION ......................................................................................... 5
PR\422857EN.doc
3/6
PE 294.705
EN
By letter of … the Presidency of the Council forwarded to Parliament the European Union
Charter of Fundamental Rights (C5-00).
At its meeting of 28 September 2000 the Conference of Presidents had decided to draw up a
report on approval of the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights in assent form.
At the sitting of … the President of Parliament announced that she had asked the Committee
on Constitutional Affairs to submit a recommendation on the European Union Charter of
Fundamental Rights.
The committee appointed Andrew Nicholas Duff and Johannes Voggenhuber rapporteurs at
its meeting of 16 October 2000.
It considered the draft recommendation at its meetings of 7 November 2000.
At the latter meeting it adopted the draft decision by ... votes to ..., with ...
abstention(s)/unanimously.
The following were present for the vote: ..., chairman/acting chairman; ... (and ...), vicechairman/vice-chairmen; ..., rapporteur; ..., ... (for ...), ... (for ... pursuant to Rule 153(2)), ...
and ... .
The recommendation was tabled on … .
PE 294.705
EN
4/6
PR\422857EN.doc
DRAFT RECOMMENDATION
Decision on approval of the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights (C5-00)
The European Parliament,
-
having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (C5-00),
-
having regard to the resolution of 16 March 2000 on the drafting of a European Union
Charter of Fundamental Rights (A5-0064/2000),
– having regard to the resolution of 13 April 2000 on the Intergovernmental Conference
(A5-0086/2000),
– having regard to the resolution of 3 October 2000 on the Charter of Fundamental Rights of
the European Union (B5-0767/2000),
– having regard to Rule 54 of its Rules of Procedure,
–
having regard to the report of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (A5-../2000),
A. whereas the European Council at Cologne in June 1999 decided ‘to establish a Charter of
Fundamental Rights in order to make their overriding importance and relevance more
visible to the Union's citizens’,
B. whereas the European Council resolved that the Charter ‘should contain the fundamental
rights and freedoms as well as basic procedural rights guaranteed by the European
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and derived
from the constitutional traditions common to the Member States, as general principles of
Community law; the charter should also include the fundamental rights that pertain only to
the Union's citizens; In drawing up such a Charter account should furthermore be taken of
economic and social rights as contained in the European Social Charter and the
Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers (Article 136 TEC), in
so far as they do not merely establish objectives for action by the Union’,
C. whereas the European Council decided that the Convention established to draft the
Charter should present a draft document in advance of the European Council of December
2000, and that the European Council ‘will propose to the European Parliament and the
Commission that, together with the Council, they should solemnly proclaim on the basis
of the draft document a European Charter of Fundamental Rights’,
D. whereas on 16 March 2000 the European Parliament resolved that a Charter ‘constituting
merely a non-binding declaration and, in addition, doing no more than merely listing
existing rights, would disappoint citizens' legitimate expectations,’ and that the Charter
‘should be regarded as a basic component of the necessary process of equipping the
European Union with a constitution’,
PR\422857EN.doc
5/6
PE 294.705
EN
E. whereas on 2 October the Convention achieved a wide consensus on a final draft of the
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Convent 50),
F. whereas the informal European Council at Biarritz on 13-14 October 2000 accepted as
definitive the Convention’s final draft of the Charter and invited the Parliament to join
with it and the Commission in a solemn proclamation of the Charter,
1. Considers that the Convention has fulfilled its mandate from the European Council;
2. Approves the text of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union as
appended hereto;
3. Instructs its President to jointly proclaim the Charter at Nice with the President of the
European Council and the President of the European Commission;
4. Instructs its President to forward this decision to the President of the Council, the
President of the European Commission and the President of the Convention.
PE 294.705
EN
6/6
PR\422857EN.doc