HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE EUROPEAN CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER

and the ideas of human rights and never explicitly rejected the idea of human rights. It merely postponed the specific implementations of human rights commitment and outsourced the (although not explicitly) human rights protection mechanism to the Council of Europe. It leaves little doubt that the “foundations of an ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe” were laid not only on the foundations of the Charter of the United Nations but also on the foundations of the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms.

17