Article 51 of the Charter in the Legislative Processes of the Member States

Abstract

Member States have to comply with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (the Charter) in their national legislative processes, but only with regard to legislative acts qualifying as the implementation of Union law in the sense of Article 51(1) of the Charter. National legislative proposals therefore need to be assessed in the light of this provision. This assessment is sometimes simple, but can also be complex. The rather abstract concept of ‘Article 51 implementation covers a wide range of concrete situations. The dividing line between legislative proposals within the scope of EU law (which must be Charter compliant) and purely national legislative proposals (which do not need to be checked against the Charter) might be difficult to discern. The challenge is to create alertness in the legislative process for the possible application of the Charter and to develop methodological steps necessary to identify Article 51 proposals.