Portuguese view on EU Charter of fundamental rights

Download article in original language : PT0012126NPT.DOC

The EU Charter of fundamental rights - which includes a number of social and employment rights - was proclaimed at the Nice European Council summit in December 2000. Here we review the positions of the Portuguese social partners and political parties on the Charter.

The European Council summit held in Nice on 7-9 December 2000 (EU0012288F) saw the joint proclamation by the Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament of the EU Charter of fundamental rights (EU0011278N), which sets out a variety of civil, social and human rights already found in a range of national and international instruments. In the industrial relations and employment field, the rights enshrined in the Charter include:

• freedom of association;

• the right to engage in work and to pursue a freely chosen or accepted occupation;

• prohibition of discrimination based on any grounds, such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation;

• equality between men and women in all areas;

• workers' rights to information and consultation within the undertaking;

• the right of workers and employers to negotiate and conclude collective agreements and take collective action, including strike action;

• protection in the event of unjustified dismissal;

• the right to working conditions which respect workers' health, safety and dignity;

• the right to limitation of maximum working hours, daily and weekly rest periods and an annual period of paid leave;

• prohibition of child labour and protection of young people at work; and

• the right to protection from dismissal for reasons connected with maternity and the right to paid maternity leave and to parental leave

The legal status of the Charter is controversial - trade unions and some Member States were keen for it to be incorporated under Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union, while other Member States were anxious that it should not have Treaty basis. The text was not included in the Treaty at Nice and the issue was essentially deferred for discussion during the Swedish and possibly the Belgian EU Presidencies in 2001.

The Charter of fundamental rights was subject to extensive debate in political and social partner circles in Portugal. The political debate reflected the rifts that were occurring more widely in European politics. Thus, the Charter received the parliamentary support of the pro-Europe parties, the Socialist Party (Partido Socialista, PS) and the Social Democrat Party (Partido Social Democrata, PSD), while the Popular Party (Partido Popular, CDS/PP) - which is starting to rejoin the pro-Europe sphere after a temporary detour toward nationalism - abstained. The more left-wing parties, the Portuguese Communist Party (Partido Comunista Português, PCP) and the Left-wing Bloc (Bloco de Esquerda, BE), which are "eurosceptical", voted against, not wishing to have a binding Charter out of fear of a "European constitution" and a "federal Europe". Perhaps ironically, they criticised the fact that the rights enshrined in the Charter did not go far enough - though, of course, in order for the Charter to go further, the competencies of the EU would have to be widened, to the detriment of national sovereignty.

The General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (Confederação Geral de Trabalhadores Portugueses, CGTP) and the General Workers' Union (União Geral de Trabalhadores, UGT) followed the line taken by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the Platform of European Social NGOs, which sought a strong set of rights (EU0010273N). At one point during the work of the Charter's drafting Convention, trade union criticism ran high before it became clear that the Charter would not constitute a step back for social rights (EU0008268F). After the final text was approved, the unions began insisting on a binding Charter, considering that the content, though more limited than they would have liked, represented an important step towards the construction of a social and a citizens? Europe. Some statements made by CGTP leaders highlighted what they saw as the minimalist and reductionist nature of some of the provisions in the Charter. It was, though, noteworthy that CGTP and the PCP took differing positions regarding the issue of whether the Charter should or should not be binding. On the employers' side, most organisations sought a more liberal approach to the enshrinement, content and scope of social rights - opposing, for example, recognition of the right to strike.

For J Barros Moura, a Socialist Party MP, the significance of the Charter of fundamental rights lies in: the inclusion of economic, social and cultural rights; the fact that the various rights under the heading of "solidarity" apply to workers in general and not just EU citizens; the underlying concept that all people are equal in dignity and that, in terms of legal protection, social rights must not come second in relation to civil and political rights; the perceived recognition that social rights, like all other rights, require protection against restriction; the enshrining of the values of the "social state", extending beyond strictly liberal concepts of society and the state; and the belief that the EU is now ceasing to be a merely economic organisation and becoming a political entity that stands apart from the individual states —an entity that recognises political and social citizenship as one of the basic keys to integration.