The Making of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union

There would be no need to remind ourselves of fundamental values if the EU limited itself to fostering cooperation among Member States and if the decisions made within the EU concerned marginal aspects of social and economic life. This is not the case, however. EU institutions make decisions, implement policies, which is to say, they imperatively dictate social values. The regime of the EU political system has inserted ethic and genuinely human values one step at a time: the Charter of Fundamental Rights was the official announcement of that. This chapter analyses the internal and external factors that led to the legal recognition of human rights in the European Union Treaties and the proclamation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The author addresses some fundamental questions related to this process. Are the values that gave rise to the integration process are the same that nowadays guide the choices of the European institutions and Member States? The EU Charter can represent at the same time a conquest and a starting point for further developments for an even better foundation of EU citizenship? What is the awareness of the rights set out in the EU Charter? The main hypothesis driving this article is that the legitimacy of the EU through values and rights, and no longer only through a mere "cost-benefit" calculation, can represent the key to accelerating the path towards political union.