HL Deb 06 November 1996 vol 575 cc59-60WA
Lord Lester of Herne Hill

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will propose at the Inter-Governmental Conference that the standing rules which private applicants must satisfy under Article 173 of the Treaty of Rome should be amended so as (inter alia) to enable someone who claims that his fundamental rights have been infringed by a Community institution to have effective access to the European Court of Justice.

Baroness Chalker of Wallasey

I refer the noble Lord to paragraph 24 of the response I gave to the House of Lords Select Committee report on the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference:

"The Government is not in favour of broadening the grounds for individuals to challenge Community acts before the ECJ. Such an enlargement of Articles 173 and 184 would have effects going beyond the human rights actions proposed. In any event, individuals who claim that their human rights have been infringed may seek redress through the domestic courts, through the ECJ under Article 177, and directly to the ECHR institutions".