[ 2013-12-28 ]

UK Ministers to block ‘right to marry’ in EU backlash
The Government has vowed to block a fresh push to
introduce new EU human rights, such as the right
to marry and the right to collective bargaining,
into Britain.
Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, dismissed
as “absurd” the latest moves to integrate the
Charter of Fundamental Rights into UK courts. The
plan was revealed in a European Commission
document published last month.
The last Labour Government claimed that it had
secured an opt-out from the charter, which
enshrines 54 “rights” in EU law, when it
signed the Lisbon Treaty in 2007. However, there
are growing doubts about the British waiver’s
validity as efforts to extend EU human rights law
intensify.
A discussion paper to shape the Commission’s
“future initiatives in the field of justice”
raises the option of “enhancing the scope” of
EU human rights, such as guarantees of “housing
assistance” and “fair working conditions”.
“A significant development has been the
increasing judicial application of the charter,”
it says, but adds that pressure is growing to
increase its power over national laws.
“People’s interest and expectations about the
enforcement of fundamental rights by the EU are
high,” it says, adding that about three quarters
of the letters it receives raise cases “where
the charter does not apply and the Commission is
not allowed to intervene”.
“One option could be to make all fundamental
rights guaranteed in the Charter directly
applicable in Member States. This would allow
citizens to rely on these rights before national
courts in all situations, including those which
are not related to the implementation of EU
law.”
The charter enshrines a host of rights not found
in other declarations, including personal, work
and family relations. One of them is a proposed
“right to marry and found a family”.
Mr Grayling, told The Times: “This country never
wanted a Charter of Fundamental Rights and the
idea we would sign up to changes that meant it
took over our domestic laws is absurd.
“The European Commission should stop trying to
create a European justice system and should let
member states get on with solving the real
challenges we all face,” he added.
Despite his assurance that he will resist any
explicit increases in its scope, which would
require a changes to EU treaties, Mr Grayling
faces what critics say amounts to its adoption
into UK law by stealth.
The Justice Secretary was forced to answer an
urgent question in the
Commons when a High Court judge, Mr Justice
Mostyn, ruled last month that the charter could
have legal force in UK courts. “It would seem
that the much wider Charter of Rights is now part
of our domestic law. Moreover, that much wider
Charter of Rights would remain part of our
domestic law even if the Human Rights Act were
repealed,” his judgment stated.
Mr Justice Mostyn said a that a protocol attached
to the document, which was supposed to guarantee
an opt-out by Britain and Poland, might be open to
a successful challenge. They were the
“misleading product of political compromise
because on any view the charter enunciated a host
of new rights not expressly found in the European
Convention on Human Rights”.
That led the Tory MP Bill Cash to warnthat if the
judge was right, it could “open the floodgate to
a tidal wave” of legal action at enormous cost
to the British taxpayer and businesses.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “The
judge’s analysis of the charter does not reflect
the Government’s position, and in our view is
not consistent with the terms of the charter
itself or the established case law.”
The charter’s impact, he added, was “very
limited — all the rights in the charter were
already part of EU law. It does not create any new
obligations and only applies when the UK is
implementing EU law.”
A spokesman for the European Commission said:
“This paper was published several months ago to
stimulate debate at a conference in November. It
had a disclaimer saying it did not represent the
position of the European Commission. Changes to
the Charter - which covers only EU law - could
indeed only be made if the UK signed up to
them.”

Source - The Times(UK)

... go Back