Origin and development of the values of the European Union

The article analyzes the emergence of European values in the concepts of philosophers of Ancient Greece and state thinkers of Ancient Rome. The author shows their further development under the influence of Christianity, social church doctrine, ideas of German classical philosophers, thinkers of the Enlightenment, and founders of the concept of natural law.The significance of the first European documents on the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms, in particular the Magna Charta of 1215, the Habeas Corpus of 1679, the English Bill of Rights of 1689, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, the first constitutions in Europe, and the US Constitution (1787) are studied. The study of the genesis of the values on which the EU is based today takes into account the development of the Ukrainian state and law and their impact on this process, in particular the establishment of Greek city-states in the Southern Black Sea region, the introduction of Christianity in Kyivan Rus. The significance of the documents and treaties of Kyivan Rus and the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk (1710) in terms of their compliance with the values of the EU and their influence on their formation is clarified. Particular attention is paid to the evolution of EU values after the conclusion of the 1950 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms within the framework of the Council of Europe and the creation of the European Communities. The author analyzes the texts of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (1951), the Treaty on the European Economic Community (1957), and the Single European Act (1986).The transformation of EU values and their legal nature from the Draft Treaty on a Constitution for Europe (2003) to the Charter of Fundamental Rights (2001), which became part of the Lisbon Treaty (2009), is studied in more detail. Special attention is paid to the evolution of legal terminology in EU law, when the term «principles» is still used in the text of the Treaty of Amsterdam, and the term «values» is used in the text of the Treaty of Lisbon. The author shows how values developed from philosophical, concepts, under the influence of religious and political teachings, supplemented and transformed in EU law from legal principles to values. In the final part of the article, conclusions are formulated.