Egan, Annabel; Pech, Laurent --- "Respect for human rights as a general objective of the EU’s external action" [2017] ELECD 975; in Douglas-Scott, Sionaidh; Hatzis, Nicholas (eds), "Research Handbook on EU Law and Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 243

Book Title: Research Handbook on EU Law and Human Rights

Editor(s): Douglas-Scott, Sionaidh; Hatzis, Nicholas

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781782546399

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: Respect for human rights as a general objective of the EU’s external action

Author(s): Egan, Annabel; Pech, Laurent

Number of pages: 24

Abstract/Description:

As originally conceived, the European Union was resolutely economic in character and the establishment of a common market the most immediate and tangible objective of European integration. Neither the Treaty of Paris nor the subsequent Treaty of Rome made explicit reference to respect for human rights as either a foundational value or a guiding principle for Community action. This is not to say that the initial lack of express provisions for the protection of human rights meant the absence of any protection. As early as 1969, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) held that fundamental rights were enshrined in the general principles of law that the Court protects. The Court’s motivation for protecting fundamental rights did not, however, derive from a sudden passion for rights. It is generally accepted that this decision was motivated by the need to respond to the German Federal Constitutional Court, which had threatened to disregard the primacy of EU law so long as the Community legal order lacked specific protection for fundamental rights. But this initial reluctance to explicitly articulate the EU’s commitment to human rights did not last long. In 1973, respect for human rights was formally identified as one of the ‘fundamental elements of the European Identity’, along with the principles of representative democracy, the rule of law and social justice.