Binding rights charter urged on summit

The EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights, which will be debated today by the summit, should be legally binding, the President of the European Parliament, Ms Nicole Fontaine, said yesterday.

In the traditional parliament address to the beginning of the summit, Ms Fontaine said that the charter should either be incorporated into the treaty or referred to in Article Six which already mentions the EU's adherence to the European Convention on Human Rights.

But even a reference to the charter is likely to be strongly opposed by the majority of member states who want to confine it to a political declaration.

Ms Fontaine also said that, in the IGC, structures enabling closer co-operation "can be envisaged but must not constitute a means of returning to the intergovernmental method". Nor should they relegate the parliament to the fringes of the decision-making process. Calling on leaders to embrace an ambitious agenda for the IGC she also insisted that a debate in its wake on issues such as a constitution for the EU or an enhanced role for national parliaments should be conducted in a more genuinely representative forum like that which has drafted the charter.

Reuters adds: A British Conservative spokesman yesterday urged the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, to veto the European charter on rights, saying the document would burden business and restrict British independence. "This document is a superstate charter," said Mr Francis Maude, the shadow foreign secretary. He noted the draft charter was intended to become legally binding, and that the European Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, had said as much.