This research paper was requested by the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs and commissioned, overseen and published by the Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs, 2016.
“The EU institutions are required take into account the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the design and implementation of legislation or of policies, both within law and policy making internal to the Union and in the external relations of the EU. This study was commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament, to examine how they discharge this duty: it looks into the role of the Charter in the legislative process; in the economic governance of the Union; in the work of EU agencies; in the implementation of EU law by EU Member States; and, in the external relations of the Union, both in trade and investment policies and in the Common Foreign and Security Policy. It also analyses certain gaps in the judicial protection of the Charter and identifies measures through which the potential of the Charter could be further realized…”