Human Rights in the European Union - Essay Example

These treaties put up the various European Union institutions together with procedures and objectives. The European Union only acts within the boundaries set up by these treaties. Any amendment to these treaties necessitates the agreement and subsequent ratification of the signatories. The two most crucial treaties are the Treaty of the European Union of 1993, and the Treaty of the functioning of the European Union of 1958 (Paul, 2011). The Treaty of European Union gets split into six integral parts.

The parts that cover freedoms, equality, human rights and laws in the European Union include title one, common provisions, title two, democratic principle provision and title 3, institution provision. Under title one, the Common provision part of the treaty, article 1formulates the legal provisions in the treaty. Article 2 fronts that the European Union gets founded on values of democracy, the rule of law, respect for human dignity, respect for human rights and freedom. The goal here is for the member states to live in a society where tolerance, non discrimination, justice, gender equality and solidarity thrives (Schiek, 2008).

The third article under common provisions identifies the six core goals of the European Union which are promoting peace citizen well being and European values, establishing free movement within its borders, creating an internal market, establishing the Euro, promoting values, poverty eradication, upholding human rights, respecting the United Nations Charter, and a promise to pursue the above objectives effectively. Article 4 gets associated with the sovereignty and obligations of member states.

Article 5 formulates the principles of conferral proportionality regarding power limits. Article 6 specifically binds the European Union to the European Human Rights Convention and the Fundamental Rights of the European Convention Charter. Article 7 gets involved in the disciplinary matters whereas article 8 gets involved in the creation of strong ties with member states (Meenan, 2007). The second title in the treaty is the provision of democratic principles. This part of the treaty establishes equality among citizens and looks into citizenship.

Of great interest to us is the declaration that the European Union gets based on representative democracy with the population being the ultimate decision makers. This policy defined the procedures through which political parties get formulated and how citizens get represented. The 11th article addresses transparency in governance provides for consultations before decision making and creates provisions for petitions. Article 12 awards national legislatures’ negligible involvement in law making (Meenan, 2007).

The third title, Provisions on the institutions, establishes the institution of the Court of Justice, the European parliament, the European Commission, the European Council, the Court of Auditors and the European Central Bank under article 13. It also facilitates cooperation between the above institutions and controls their competencies in accordance with the powers in the treaty. Article 14 with how the legislative arm of the European Union works and election of members. Article 15, on the other hand, handles the European Council and the procedure that governs its presidency, whereas article 16 deals with the Council and how it gets constituted.

The European Commission and appointments to it get handled in article 17, while the establishment of Representatives of Security and Foreign