Bringing the Charter to life Conference March 2012, Copenhagen Morten Bødskov, Danish Minister of Justice

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1 Bringing the Charter to life Conference March 2012, Copenhagen Morten Bødskov, Danish Minister of Justice Ladies and Gentlemen, On behalf of the Danish Presidency, and the EU Agency of Fundamental Rights, I am very pleased to welcome you to Copenhagen to the seminar: Bringing the Charter to Life From the title of the seminar, you could get the impression that we are here to wake the dead: That the Charter is on life support! But, I do not believe that the situation is so dramatic. In fact, I suggest that the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights is indeed more alive than ever; both in Brussels and in the Member States. Slotsholmsgade København K. Telefon Telefax jm@jm.dk

2 The importance of the Charter should not be underestimated. With the Treaty of Lisbon, we now have a legally-binding instrument on fundamental rights. It applies not only to EU institutions and bodies, but also to the Member States when they implement EU law. The Charter is the crowning achievement of the building of the European Union based on the respect for human rights and rule of law. The Charter represents one of the most modern codifications of fundamental rights in the world. It contains all the classic guarantees of fundamental rights, which are also found in the European Convention on Human Rights, but it goes beyond that. The Charter also guarantees rights and principles, including economic and social rights, which stem from the constitutional traditions of the Member States, the European Court of Justice case law and other international agreements. Furthermore, the Charter protects so-called "third-generation" fundamental rights, such as an explicit right to data protection or the right to good administration. We are already seeing important signs of the legal impact of the Charter. 2

3 Thus, as you all are aware of, the European Court of Justice has recently on two occasions found that EU legal acts where invalid because they did not comply with the Charter. We have also seen a commitment among the EU Institutions to implement the Charter in the EU law making process. The European Commission, the Council of Ministers, and The European Parliament have all adopted important conclusions on how they intend to make use of the Charter. In particular, each of them has drawn up their own Charter checklists. On Member State level we are increasingly seeing national courts and administrative authorities referring to and applying the Charter. Moreover, among our civil societies there is a great interest and expectation in what the Charter means for them. So one could ask then: Do we have a problem at all? That brings me back to the title of the seminar, or rather the subtitle of the seminar: Opportunities and challenges of putting the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights into practice. The fact that the Charter is important, and that the potential of the Charter is slowly being seen, does not mean that there are no challenges. 3

4 On the political level, the global economic and financial crisis dominates both the international and domestic agenda. What does this crisis mean for human rights? Implementing human rights, ensuring social justice, supporting the vulnerable in our society all of this costs money. Are we prepared to afford human rights in these times of crisis? Will the crisis affect human rights? Is there a risk that we might be entering into a human rights recession? When it comes to the legal implementation of the Charter, critical questions could and should also be asked: Are the EU institutions and bodies in fact doing enough to implement the Charter in their work? What about the Member States? Are our national parliaments, governments, judicial authorities and national human rights institutions sufficiently aware of the Charter? Do they apply the Charter in their daily work? And what about our civil societies? Do they know what the Charter is really about, or have we failed in our efforts to inform them of their rights? These are vital questions, and that is why we believe the Copenhagen seminar is so important. Because today and tomorrow distinguished experts, high level individuals and 4

5 people responsible for developing and driving policy on a dayto-day level in the EU, government and civil society will have a unique chance to discuss and debate these issues. In Denmark we have an important tradition of what we call the Danish Folk High School: Højskolen. For outsiders it can be difficult to explain exactly what a "højskole" is. I suppose a short definition, is that it is a school for adults, which places the emphasis on general, mind-broadening education, and where public matters are discussed in a free and open-minded atmosphere. I hope that you will take some of the spirit of the Danish Højskole with you to this seminar. The questions raised are so important, that they deserve to be discussed in an open and frank manner. I wish you a very constructive conference in Copenhagen. Thank you. 5