LEGAL PRINCIPLES VERSUS FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS POST-LISBON
LEGAL PRINCIPLES VERSUS FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS POST-LISBON

Summary/Abstract: The legal principles are a relevant source of the EU law. They become mostly visible when one tries to analyse the EU regulations, when assessing the legality of the EU acts, although they can also come out as regulations whose violation will mean appropriate accountability. The legal principles originate not only from the EU law, but also from the international public law, the legal principles of the contemporary legal systems, as well as from the legal systems of the EU member-states. On the other hand, the EU recognises the rights, freedoms and principles determined in the Charter of fundamental Rights of the EU from 7 December 2000, adopted in Strasbourg on 12 December 2007. The Charter has the same legal weight as the other European and international human rights treaties. The provisions of this Charter do not in any way expand the competencies of the Union as defined in the treaties, however the rights, freedoms and principles stipulated in the Charter ought to be read in context of the general provisions from chapter 7 of the Charter. The Union will very soon accept the European Convention on Human Rights. This will not have implications on the EU competences as defined in the treaties. The fundamental rights, as guaranteed in the ECHR and in the constitutional traditions jointly of all EU member-states constitute the general principles of the EU law. This is included in Article 6 of the Lisbon Treaty dedicated to the fundamental rights and freedoms in the Union which will be the focal subject of analysis of this paper, in context of the application of the ECHR, as well as the national constitutions of the EU member-states. "The EU respects the fundamental rights as guaranteed in the ECHR signed in Rome on 4 November 1950 and which come as a result of the constitutional traditions of all member-states, as general principles of the EU law." The Maastricht version of the EU treaty (Article F(2)) and the amendments form Amsterdam 6(2) suppressed the human rights treaties in favour of the ECHR, but this did not diminish the functioning of the other human rights treaties as generators of general EU law principles. This narrower formula remained in the Lisbon version of the EU Treaty (now article 6(3)).

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