§ Keith VazTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if it is his policy to make the Charter of Fundamental Rights enforceable in law. [78869]
§ Mr. MacShaneThe Charter is a political declaration. The Government strongly supports it. People need to know their rights and the EU institutions need to respect them.
The Government has always maintained that there are legal and practical problems linked to giving the text as its stands legal status. The Laeken European Council mandated the participants in the Future of Europe Convention to consider the Charter's status. We have worked hard in the Convention's Charter Working Group to find solutions to the issues of legal certainty that would need to be resolved before the UK could consider a change in the Charter's status.
In looking at the Charter's status, two key aspects of the existing text must be maintained: that the Charter is addressed to the Institutions and the Member States only to the extent they are implementing Union law; and 645W that the Charter creates no new power or tasks for the EC and does not modify powers or tasks defined by the Treaties.
The Government welcomes the Working Group's final report, including some of the technical amendments the group recommends, as a basis for further work on the Charter's status. Any decision on the future status of the Charter will be taken by Heads of Government at an IGC.