8.

Believes that in order to make full use of the potential of the treaties, there is a need to: (a) complete the process of acceding to the European Convention on Human Rights and immediately put in place the necessary instruments to fully accomplish this obligation, which is enshrined the treaties, as it will provide an additional mechanism for enforcing the human rights of its citizens, inter alia with a view to ensuring the application by the Member States of the judgments given by the European Court of Human Rights, particularly ‘pilot judgments; accede, as called for by the Council of Europe, to the European Social Charter, signed in Turin on 18 October 1961 and revised in Strasbourg on 3 May 1996; and for Member States to accede to and ratify the human rights conventions of the Council of Europe, to implement the already existing instruments of the acquis communautaire and to reconsider the opt-outs, which might risk affecting the rights of their citizens; (b) ensure that legislative proposals and policies comply with the Charter and respect fundamental rights, by taking tangible steps towards ensuring that they are verified against the Charter in all phases of the drafting of legislation and that the impact on fundamental rights of EU legislation and its implementation by the Member States is systematically examined in the evaluation reports on the implementation of such legislation, as well as in the annual report on the monitoring of the application of EU law; (c) ensure that the Commission — and the Council, where it initiates legislation — where appropriate, make use of the external independent expertise of the FRA; (d) intensify the cooperation between the Commission and the Member States, as well as with the European Parliament and the national parliaments, in order to improve the implementation of existing EU human rights legislation; (e) ensure that the drafting and transposition of EU law which affects and develops fundamental rights are strengthened and are carried out correctly, by following a rigorous policy of evaluation and monitoring and by bringing violations before the Court of Justice, particularly in areas within the competence of the EU, such as non-discrimination, equality, gender, disability, data protection, asylum and immigration; (f) ensure the promotion of a substantial rule of law approach which takes into account how fundamental rights are protected in practice; (g) acknowledge that a strong political will is required to address these issues, especially in times of economic and financial crisis; (h) strengthen and ensure transparency in the interinstitutional dialogue on fundamental rights or when European citizens’ interests are at stake; (i) ensure that the Commission makes full use of the existing mechanisms and that it launches objective evaluations and investigations and initiates infringement proceedings if a case is well grounded, thus avoiding double standards, wherever a Member State violates the rights enshrined in the Charter when implementing EU law; (j) plan ambitious, efficient and far-reaching policies and action programmes relating to fundamental rights and common European values, particularly in order to comply proactively and systematically with the EU’s obligations with regard to combating discrimination and promoting equality, as referred to in Articles 8 and 10 TFEU and Article 21 of the Charter; (k) cooperate in a more systematic and coordinated fashion at all levels, in particular with the Council of Europe and other international institutions, according to their specific expertise, in order to avoid any duplication; (l) streamline the multiplicity of mechanisms already available to prevent violations of fundamental rights in the EU, tackle breaches of fundamental rights and avoid forum shopping, and to step up the role which can be played by regional and local authorities, together with human rights organisations; (m) prepare comparative and summary country-by-country tables, on the basis of which the Commission should issue country-specific recommendations on fundamental rights policy, as it does for EU27 economic policy; the Council could endorse or amend these recommendations and the Commission‘s proposals regarding blatant fundamental rights violations, by the next European Council summit; (n) develop a peer review mechanism, with the participation of national human rights bodies, similar to the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC): each Member State would be peer-reviewed once every three or four years, the main objectives being to help the country concerned understand in what ways it could improve its fundamental rights strategy and structures; and to identify and share good practice in human rights policy and strategy within the EU; (o) establish a ‘new Copenhagen mechanism’ to ensure that the fundamental rights and values of the Union referred to in Article 2 of the EU Treaty and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights are respected, protected and promoted;