Захист прав людини у Європейському Союзі: загальні засади

Respect and protection of human rights is one of the main areas of activity of the European Union in accordance with the objectives and principles of this organization, enshrined in the founding treaties. Any European country that adheres to the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as the rule of law, may apply to the EU with an application for membership, as provided for in the Treaty on European Union. The criteria that candidate countries must meet for accession to the European Union (the Copenhagen criteria) were approved at the meeting of the European Council in Copenhagen in June 1993. According to them, membership in the EU from the point of view of political standards requires the candidate country to have stable institutions that guarantee democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and the protection of minorities. Countries wishing to become members of the EU must not only enshrine the principles of democracy and the rule of law in their constitutions, but also implement them in everyday life. The constitutions of the applicant countries must guarantee democratic freedoms, including political pluralism, freedom of speech and freedom of conscience. They must establish democratic institutions and independent judicial bodies, bodies of constitutional jurisdiction, which create conditions for the normal functioning of state institutions, the holding of free and fair elections, periodic changes of the ruling parliamentary majority, as well as recognition of the important role of the opposition in political life. There is no integrated mechanism for the protection of human rights in the European Union. The national system of human rights protection operating in the Member States is complemented by a system of protection at the European Union level. In addition, the protection of human rights and freedoms is carried out within the framework of the Council of Europe, of which all Member States of the European Union are members. The formation of a system of legal norms at the European Union level that ensure the protection of human rights and freedoms has occurred gradually, and this system has significant potential for its development. Over the past 60 years, the European Union has come a long way in establishing its own system of human rights protection: from a complete rejection of the idea that the protection of human rights can take precedence over the provisions of EU law, to the development of its own catalogue of human rights, which became the Charter of Fundamental Rights. In addition, the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty introduced legal grounds for the EU to join the European Convention on Human Rights. All this raises the question for Ukraine of the need to improve its own system of human rights protection, since, according to the criteria for accession to the EU, only a state with an appropriate level of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms can become a full member of the European Union.