Bonn bids for rights bill

Date: 11/02/1999

By Gareth Harding

PRESSURE is mounting on the EU to include a bill of rights for Europe's citizens in any future changes to the Union treaties.

Germany has made the drafting of a list of basic rights, including racial, religious and sexual equality before the law, one of the priorities for its six-month presidency of the EU. Europe's main political parties have also given their support to the idea and plan to campaign for citizens' rights to be enshrined in Union law in the run-up to this June's Euro-elections.

However, the move is likely to run into opposition from some member states which fear it would mean a further erosion of national sovereignty.

Although German officials deny that Bonn has already drawn up a blueprint for a European Charter of Basic Rights, ministers in the Social Democrat/Green coalition have been busy fleshing out the government's plans in recent weeks.

German Justice Minister Eckhart Pick has said that a bill of rights should guarantee religious and sexual equality before the law, provide security against abuses of power by national authorities and allow EU citizens to take their governments or Union institutions to court in pursuit of their rights.

"Our idea is to make it clear to our citizens that their basic rights are being recognised at the European level just as at the national level," he explained.

Pick also raised the possibility of integrating the European Convention on Human Rights into the EU treaty. Although all 15 Union member states have signed up to the convention, efforts to incorporate it into Union law have run into legal difficulties in the past.

Bonn sees a bill of rights as a forerunner to a fully blown European constitution. In a recent speech, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischler predicted that "the call for a European constitution will be louder than before" once the Amsterdam Treaty has been ratified this spring, adding: "Such a debate will give new impetus to political integration."

Germany is keen to involve the European and national parliaments in the drafting of a bill of rights. MEPs have already drawn up a draft EU constitution and in their manifestos for June's Euro-poll, the European Parliament's largest political parties, the Socialist Group and the Christian Democrats, called for such a charter to be drawn up.

Bonn hopes that EU leaders will sign up to a set of basic rights at their summit in Cologne in June.

In the meantime, it aims to make progress on beefing up the Union's much-criticised human rights policy. At their last meeting in Vienna, EU leaders called for a human rights audit to be compiled.

Germany wants the EU to include a bill of rights for EU citizens in any future changes to the EU's treaties.