Rights charter key issue in treaty talks

The status of the Charter of Fundamental Rights has emerged as one of the key issues in negotiations on a reform treaty to replace the EU constitution.

Despite an agreement by EU leaders in June that the charter would not be included in the new treaty, a draft text prepared by the secretariat of the Council of Ministers features the charter in full as a declaration to accompany the treaty. The UK, which has secured a protocol that the charter will not introduce any new legally enforceable rights in national law, opposes including the charter in a declaration. It has support from Poland, as Warsaw is considering whether to ask for a similar protocol.

UK Liberal Democrat MEP Andrew Duff, one of the three MEPs involved in the conference that is drafting the new treaty, said that if more member states requested opt-outs like the UK’s the effect of the charter would be destroyed. "Other member states are extremely apprehensive," he said.

Foreign ministers and MEPs will discuss the state of work on the treaty at a meeting in Viana do Castelo in Portugal on 7-8 September. Duff said that this would be the first chance to have a public debate on the treaty after the broad outlines had been negotiated in secret during the German presidency.

The status of the Charter of Fundamental Rights has emerged as one of the key issues in negotiations on a reform treaty to replace the EU constitution.