Judging the Charter

The Charter in judicial practise with a special focus on the case of protection of refugees and asylum seekers

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The Charter in a nutshell - new powers for the EU?

What powers and tasks does the Charter of Fundamental Rights establish for the European Union?

After many years of disperse system of human rights protection, the Charter finally modified the powers of the CJEU (currently bound by the Charter) and established a number of tasks for all EU institutions (namely protection of fundamental rights).
The Charter of Fundamental Rights establishes the judicial control mechanism – it provides powers and tasks of adjudication to the CJEU as the only organ that can interpret the Charter.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights does not establish any new power or task for the Community or the Union. It also does not modify powers and tasks defined by the Treaties.

As clearly stated in the Art. 51: ‘This Charter does not establish any new power or task for the Community or the Union, or modify powers and tasks defined by the Treaties’ (point 2).

‘The provisions of this Charter are addressed to the institutions and bodies of the Union with due regard for the principle of subsidiarity and to the Member States only when they are implementing Union law. They shall therefore respect the rights, observe the principles and promote the application thereof in accordance with their respective powers’ (point 1).

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