Activities of Marie-Christine VERGIAT related to 2009/2241(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Institutional aspects of accession by the European Union to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms - Review Conference of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in Kampala, Uganda (debate)
Amendments (22)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the prospect of the European Union’s accession to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), which offers an historic opportunity to creoordinate a common framework for human rights across the Continent and within the European Union, thus making it possible to safeguard human rights and fundamental freedoms for EU citizens and Member States on the same basis, and to ensure the harmonious development of the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Communities and the European Court of Human Rights;
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the important achievement represented byNotes that with the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, whereby the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘the Charter’) has becomes binding, and whichelcomes the EU’s obligation, pursuant to Article 6(2) TEU, creates an obligation for the EU to accede to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR). Welcomes, furthermore, the forthcoming entry into force of Protocol No 14 to the ECHR, set for 1 June 2010, under which the EU may accede to the ECHR;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that, while all the Member States have already ratified the ECHR, the accession to this instrument of the EU as a legal entity – which will not affect the situation of the Member States vis-à-vis the ECHR – will give the new momentum envisaged for over a decade. It will be of great political and legal importance in the creation of a continent-wide area of human rights, pursuant to Protocol No 8 to the Treaty of Lisbon, and considers that it will be of great political and legal importance in the consolidation and strengthening of human rights in Europe, particularly in the Union, and will help to strengthen its relations between the EU andwith the ‘wider Europe’, by bringing a new dynamic into the field of human rights throughout Europe. The accession will; considers that this accession should help to enhance the credibility of the EU in the field of human rights protection worldwide;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Underlines that the accession will first and foremost contribute to a more coherecontribute to a reduction in legal uncertainty internal the area of human rights system within the EU. The accession will strengthen the EU’sand fundamental freedoms in the Union and, consequently, to a coherent legal system for human rights within the EU; considers that the accession should help to strengthen the EU’s trustworthiness and credibility in the eyes of its own citizens in the field of human rights protection, ensuring full and effective respect for human rights and fundamental rightfreedoms whenever EU law is in play;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Calls for the Union to accede to the ECHR and its supplementary protocols, and to the Social Charter adopted in 1961 and the revised Social Charter; asks the Member States that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the various ECHR supplementary protocols as soon as possible, in view of their repeatedly voiced attachment to the values and principles underlying democracy and the rule of law in our Member States and the European Union;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Underlines in this respect the universal dimension of the content of the ECHR and its Additional Protocols, and that of other related texts, notably the European Social Charter of 1961; recalls that most of these instruments may be signed and ratified by parties outside Europe;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Calls for the Commission to attend, as an observer, the proceedings of the Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) and the Social Charter Governmental Committee, the European Committee on Migration and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT); calls for the European Parliament to be informed of the deliberations of the Social Charter’s Consultative Assembly, and the proceedings, conclusions and decisions adopted by the above bodies;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. NotStresses that, following the accession, the ECHR will intervene as aconstitute the minimum standard of protection for human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe and is crucial, in particular, in cases where the protection granted by the EU is inferior to that provided in the ECHR. The ECHR reinforces protection of the rights recognised by the Charter that fall within its competence. The Charter goes fuStresses that the Charther and also enshrinlso recognises other rights and principles, including economic and social rights, as well as the right to data protection and good governance; , the right to good administration and even bioethical rights, rights that are not contained in the ECHR but in the Additional Protocols and in instruments related to the ECHR;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Notes that EU accession to the ECHR will provide the Union’s citizens with an additional mechanism for enforcing their rand ensuring respect for their rights by means of external judicial control by the European Court of Human Rights, namely the possibility of lodging a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in relation to an act or failure to act by an EU institution or a Member State implementing EU law and falling at the same time within the remit of the ECHR. Stresses, however, that this does not alter the present system of jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) nor that of the European Court of Human Rights, and that the requirement that all domesticinternal judicial remedies should have been exhausted will remain the condition for the eligibility of any application;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Points out that accession will enhance the confidence of citizens in the European Union and the EU’s credibility in talks on human rights with non-Member States;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Calls on the Commission to examine the requirement to exhaust internal remedies in order to guarantee the admissibility of applications, in consultation with the ECJ and the European Court of Human Rights; stresses in this context the need to examine the issue of preliminary rulings under EU law; calls for the chosen solution to guarantee EU citizens the right to lodge individual petitions in accordance with the relevant ECHR provisions, and for the citizens’ applications and complaints to be dealt with in a reasonable period of time;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Calls on the parties to the negotiations on the Union’s accession to the ECHR to ensure that the amendments to the ECHR and its judicial system are limited to what is strictly necessary so as not to jeopardise the effectiveness and scope of the ECHR’s control;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls on the Council and Commission to ensure that Parliament is duly informed of the definition of the negotiating mandate for accession to the ECHR and that it is duly and regularly informed of progress in the accession negotiations, in accordance with Article 218 of the FEU Treaty;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Points out that, when an application is submitted under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the defendant must be identified in accordance with the provisions of European Union law and subject finally to legal review by the Court of Justice and that this must not prejudice citizens’ rights to make individual applications;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 – indent 2
Paragraph 7 – indent 2
- the need for the EU’s representation and participation in the Council of Europe’s bodies to be clarified; although with the accession to the ECHR the EU will not become a member of the Council of Europe, it should be represented on all those bodies where as a result of the accession EU matters are affectedthat monitor respect for, and promotion of, human rights and fundamental freedoms and that deal with the fundamental rights in the Charter and the objectives and principles of the Union (social rights, ban on torture, fight against racism, etc.), while the European Parliament should be represenparticipated in the procedure to elect a judge to the ECtHR;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Insists on Parliament’s right to democratic scrutiny being duly taken into accountrespected during the procedure to appoint the European Union’s representative to the Committee of Ministers and the Steering Committee for Human Rights, and in general, in any appointment to a body within the Council of Europe of which it is agreed under the accession agreement that the European Union is to be a member;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Takes the view that, for the benefit of citizens, democracy, human rights in Europe and the EU, and respect for and the safeguarding of human rights, cooperation between the European Union and the specialised bodies of the Council of Europe should be strengthened in order to help bring about greater consistency and greater complementarity in the sphere of human rights at pan- European level.
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 – indent 4
Paragraph 7 – indent 4
- the need for the problems faced by the ECtHR to be dealt with; EU accession to the ECHR, rather than diminishing its effectiveness, should must lead to an improved ECHR system of implementation of the subsidiarity principle, and thus to fewer repetitive applications at. Calls on the Union, within the framework of its accession to the ECtHR;, this in turn would relieve the burdeno participate fully in the reform onf the ECtHR witself. It is of the utmost importance that the right balance should be struck between provision of access to the additionh a view to improving the way in which it functions and the speed with which it deals with the applications and complaints submitted to it; calls on the Union and its Member States to ensure respect for human rights and fundamental fremedy and the need to avoid overloading the ECtHR. Welcomes the fact, therefore, that the accession of the EU will coincide with the reform of the ECtHRedoms when drawing up and applying their respective laws and to ensure that internal judicial remedies are effective, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity laid down in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, in order to avoid unnecessary referrals to the European Court of Human Rights;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Stresses that Article 1 of the ECHR guarantees that every person within EU jurisdiction will be able to invoke the ECHR against acts by the Union, including acts in the field of foreign relations, and will potentially be able to refer a matter to the European Court of Human Rights; stresses, too, that Article 1 of the ECHR guarantees protection not only for EU citizens and other individuals in Union territory, but also for all individuals within EU jurisdiction even outside its territory;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Hopes in this regard that the Commission and Member States will conduct an information campaign for EU citizens to ensure that they are fully aware of how to exercise their new rights of petition in the field of human rights;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Welcomes the commitment shown by the current Spanish Presidency in treating the accession as a ‘matter of urgency’ and the positive and cooperative attitude of the Council of Europe in this respect. Finally, calls on the Belgian and Hungarian Presidencies to do their utmost to finalise the accession at the earliest suitable opportunity and in as simple and accessible a manner as possible so that EU citizens can benefit as soon as possible from the Union’s accession to the ECHR.