HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE EUROPEAN CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER

THE EUROPEAN PROJECT WAS ALWAYS ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS Georgia Hejduková

Abstract Challenging the conventional view that European integration began as a purely economic venture, this article argues that humanrights concerns were embedded in every formative stage of the “European Project”. Through textual and historical analysis of the Schuman Declaration (1950), the ECSC Treaty (1951), the abortive European Political Community negotiations, and the EEC Treaty of Rome (1957), the study shows that conflict prevention, solidarity, and nondiscrimination – core human rights objectives – guided both rhetoric and treaty drafting. Although the early treaties lacked an explicit rights catalogue, provisions on peace, rising living standards, and equal treatment reveal a latent rights agenda later activated by the Court of Justice in cases such as Stauder, Internationale Handelsgesellschaft and Defrenne . The article concludes that the EU’s progressive rights architecture is not a post Lisbon add on but the fruition of ideals present from the outset; in this sense, the European project “was always about human rights”. Introduction European integration plays a fundamental role in our day-to-day lives. It affects the food we eat, the electricity we consume, the public transport we use, and the money we make. It is believed that the European Union came to represent the prosperity and interconnectedness of the world we all live in today. It is a union built not only on the foundations of the common market but also on respect for fundamental rights, the rule of law, and the recognition of diversity within its nearly half a billion inhabitants. 1 However, when we think about the European Union, we tend to focus on practical benefits such as the single market, the common European currency, the rise in the gross domestic product of states that joined the EU2, and the shared benefits of individuals such as freedom of movement without border controls. Even when we 1 European Commission. 484 million as of 2024 according to the European Commission [online]. 2024 [cit. 2024-04-05]. Available at: https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/key facts-and-figures/life-eu_en. 2 CAMPOS, Nauro F., CORICELLI, Fabrizio, and MORETTI, Luigi. Economic Growth and Political Integration: Estimating the Benefits from Membership in the European Union Using the Synthetic Counterfactuals Method [online]. Rochester, NY: SSRN Scholarly Paper, May 3, 2014 [cit. 2024-04-05]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2432446.

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