Déirdre de Búrca (Green Party)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am glad of this opportunity to debate the charter of fundamental rights that is attached to the Lisbon treaty by means of a protocol. The treaty sets out to bring the EU and its institutions closer to citizens, as well as making itself more relevant to the citizenry of the Union. The charter helps to do just that. The treaty itself clarifies and explains what EU citizenship means, it does not replace national citizenship but complements it. Therefore it is additional to, rather than replacing, an individual's national citizenship. People may ask what EU citizenship means, why it is so important and what added value it bestows. The treaty clearly outlines that the EU is a community of values. Even though it comprises 27 member states with diverse cultures, traditions and backgrounds, they have common values, including human dignity, freedom, equality, solidarity, democracy and the rule of law. More specifically, the charter sets out the fundamental rights and freedoms to which not just EU citizens but also all those legally resident in the EU are entitled. The Green Party believes this is an very significant and positive element of the overall treaty. Effectively, this is a progressive bill of rights, which reflects best practice in the many areas it touches upon, including civil, political, social and economic rights.

Those working in the human rights field know there is quite a battle to get states to recognise not just traditional civil and political rights but also to extend that recognition to social and economic rights. This is what the charter does by enshrining social and economic rights in addition to civil and political ones. Therefore, the EU will have its own bill of rights. Although some have said there is nothing new in it — in a strict sense that is true — the charter pulls together rights from various international treaties. The charter has existed since 2000, although it did not have legal status until it was proposed as part of the Lisbon treaty. In addition, it includes constitutional traditions and provisions of individual member states, some of which are reflected in rights contained in the charter. Even though they are not new rights, by attaching them to the treaty via a protocol they become more visible, thus providing a focus point around which citizens and others legally resident in the EU can mobilise. They will be very important in future given the inevitable struggles we witness within states and polities such as the EU, where citizens seek to have their rights vindicated. Those rights are clearly and visibly outlined in this charter.

It is important the European Union has taken this step because it has in many ways presented itself to citizens as an alternative to unfettered, free market economic globalisation. In a sense the EU is a project which sets out to democratise globalisation. The Charter of Fundamental Rights strengthens the Union's social and environmental dimension, a development citizens should recognise as positive.

The Green Party welcomes the rights and freedoms set out in the charter. Chapter 1, on dignity, contains important provisions and rights for citizens and legal residents of the European Union in the area of the right to integrity of the person. It is made clear, for instance, that in the fields of medicine and biology the free and informed consent of persons is required according to procedures laid down by the law. The section also includes a prohibition on making the human body and its parts a source of financial gain and prohibits the reproductive cloning of human beings. Ten or 15 years ago, we would have considered it fanciful and far-fetched to set out such prohibitions in a legally binding charter. However, owing to recent developments in the area of reproductive cloning and so forth, we now know the importance of establishing them in law.

Article 4 prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. For those of us who have observed with concern some of the practices accepted in Guantanamo Bay, it is reassuring to note the European Union is firmly and clearly committing itself to such a prohibition. The prohibition on trafficking of human beings is also important given that human trafficking has became an unfortunate part of the globalised world to which we belong.

Article 8 setting out the right to have one's personal data protected is also very important. The House regularly debates the abuses and infringements of the right to privacy in relation to personal data. This is a strong article which reassures individual citizens that they have a fundamental right to have their personal data protected, access data being collected and have such data corrected in the event that it is inaccurate.

The Green Party welcomes the rights to education and asylum enshrined in the charter. It is reassuring to note that no citizen or legal resident of the European Union may be removed, expelled or extradited to a state where there is a serious risk that he or she would be subjected to the death penalty, torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. That is a standard to which this State must sometimes be pushed to observe. The charter also enshrines the rights of the child and the elderly and refers to the key issue of equality between men and women.

My sole reservation about the Charter of Fundamental Rights relates to the reference in the chapter setting out general provisions which, in referring to the scope of guaranteed rights states that limitations may be made "only if they are necessary and genuinely meet objectives of general interest recognised by the Union or the need to protect the rights and freedoms of others". Certain European Court of Justice rulings, specifically in the Laval, Rüffert and Viking cases, have been raised repeatedly in the debate on the Lisbon treaty. It appears from these judgments that the court might be interpreting the interests of business, such as the rights of establishment and to provide services in other parts of the EU, as objectives of general interest recognised by the Union. Given the tendency of courts to reflect the political consensus of the day, member state governments must make clear that where a conflict arises between the fundamental human rights of citizens and the rights of businesses, the latter must not be seen to win out. Otherwise, citizens will lose confidence in the European Union, view it as aneoliberal project and withhold support from it in future.