To implement the provisions of the Association Agreement with the European Union (EU), Ukraine should master the legal standards of human rights and freedoms of this international institution. In EU law, the system of legal guarantees of human rights has gone a long way of establishment and development: from the initial denial of the need to recognize such rights to the adoption of a separate international act – the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (EU Charter) which is endowed with the legal force of the EU founding treaties.

However, despite the considerable history of its establishment and development, there are no sufficient grounds to argue that today the system of human rights protection in the EU is finally formed and does not need significant improvement. The European legislator did not settle on endowing the EU Charter norms with the force of the founding treaties but also incorporated into the Lisbon Treaty the obligation of the EU to accede to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), and thus actually created a difficult situation of legal dualism as regards current and prospective regulation of the status of the human rights and freedoms standards in the EU. On the one part, the EU Charter norms and the human rights and freedoms standards established by the EU Court on their basis take precedence in the legal system of this international institution, but on the other part, subject to fulfillment of the obligation of the EU accession to the ECHR, a higher degree of supremacy in respect of determining the European human rights standards in the EU legal system will go to the ECHR as applicable in the relevant case law of the European Court of Human Rights.

For Ukraine, the answer to the question – which trends in the legal guarantees of human rights are prevailing in the EU? – will have an impact on resolving the issue of searching for optimal legal instruments to approximate Ukraine’s legislation to EU law.

The purpose of the article is to study the consistent patterns, features, and challenges of legal guarantees of rights and freedoms in the EU with a view to a more efficient approximation of Ukraine’s legal system to the EU legal system. The author investigates the establishment and development peculiarities of the institution of human rights in the EU. The article analyzes the norms of the EU Charter as the principal legal instrument to ensure human rights in this institution, and also the prospects for improving the legal guarantees of rights and freedoms in the EU, given the drafting of the Agreement on the Accession of the European Union to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Bibliography

Authored books

1. Nanette N and Allan R, The European Union and Human Rights (Kluwer Law International 1995) (in English).

2. Dobrianskiy S, Aktualni problemy zahalnoi teorii prav liudyny [Actual Problems of the General Theory of Human Rights] (Astron 2006) (in Ukranian).

3. Opryshko V, Pravo Jevropejskogo Sojuzu [European Union Law] (КNЕU 2002) (in Ukranian).

Edited books

4. Gaja G, ‘Acession to the ECHR’ in Biondi A and Eeckhout P and Ripley S, EU Law After the Lisbon Treaty (Oxford University Press 2012) (in English).

5. Scheeck L, ‘Constitutional activism and fundamental rights in Europe: common interests through transnational socialization’ in Rowell J and Mangenot M (eds), Political Sociology of the European Union. Reassessing Constructivism (Manchester University Press 2010) (in English).

6. ‘Dogovor o funkcionirovanii Evropejskogo Sojuza’ [‘Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union’] v Evropejskij Sojuz: Osnovopolagajushhie akty v redakcii Lissabonskogo dogovora s kommentarijami [European Union: Fundamental Acts as Amended by the Lisbon Treaty with Comments] (Izda-vo INFRA – M 2008) (in Russian).

7. Hartja Jevropejskogo Sojuzu ob osnovnuh pravah. Komentariy [Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Comment] (Kashkin S red, Jurisprudencija 2001) (in Russian).

Journal articles

8. De Burca G, ‘After the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: The Court of Justice as a Human Rights Adjudicator?’ (2013) 20 Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 3-5 (in English).

9. Belova G, ‘Institucionalnuye i procesualnuye problem, svjazannuje s prisojedineniem Jevropejskogo Sojuza k Jevropejskoi Konvenciju o zashite prav cheloveka i osnovnuh svobod’ [‘Institutional and Procedural Challenges Related to the Accession of the European Union to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms’] (2013) 3 Pravo Ukrainu 109-13 (in Russian).

10. Entin K, ‘Prisojedinenie Jevropejskogo Sojuza k JEKPCH’ [‘Accession of the European Union to the ECHR’] (2012) 3 Jevropejskoje Pravo 111-23 (in Russian).

11. Entin K, ‘Prisojedinenie Jevropejskogo Sojuza k Jevropejskoi Konvenciju o zashite prav cheloveka I osnovnuh svobod: analiz zakljuchenija Suda Jes 2/13’ [‘Accession of the European Union to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: Analysis of the Opinion of the EU Court 2/13’] (2015) 3 Sravnitelnoje Konstitucionnoe Obozrenije 83-91(in Russian).

12. Ispolinov А, ‘Praktika JEKPCH v otnosheniij Jevropejskogo Sojuza: nekotoruje uroki dlja JEvrAzejes’ [‘Practice of the ECHR with Regard to the European Union: Some Lessons for the EEC’] (2012) 3 Jurnal zarybegnogo zakonodatelstva I sravnitelnogo pravovedenija 112-4 (in Russian).

13. Tabushka S, ‘Razvitije zashitu prav cheloveka v ramkah pravovoy sistemu Jevropejskogo Sojuza’ [‘Development of Human Rights Protection within the Framework of the European Union’s Legal System’] (2013) 3 Pravo Ukrainu 100-7 (in Russian).