Candidate Countries Facing a Binding Charter of Fundamental Rights: What’s New?

Abstract

This Chapter addresses two delicate questions. On the one side, whether and to what extent the binding nature of the Charter affects the accession procedure to the EU; on the other, whether this legal force is capable of raising the threshold of human rights conditionality with respect to the enlargement policy. According to the author, a binding Charter can be quite influential on enlargement dynamics as it should progressively become the main parameter in assessing the progress of candidates countries. Moreover, it could help overcome the “double standard issue” by contrasting the far too severe scrutiny applied to candidate countries with a more fair procedure against Member States. As a result, the EU’s overall legitimacy and credibility of the EU on the international scene would be enhanced.