EU:The charter of fundamental rights of the European Union, to which Ireland at last weekend's summit successfully sought the option of a derogation, contains a range of human rights provisions designed to boost the visibility of EU citizens' rights.
It was drafted by the three EU institutions - the parliament, commission and the council - in response to fears expressed by some judges that fundamental rights were not adequately protected in the EU, and was later incorporated into the draft EU constitution.
It does not establish new rights but assembles existing rights from sources such as the European Convention on Human Rights, and conventions of the Council of Europe, the UN and the International Labour Organisation.
Among such basic rights as that to life and the prohibition on slavery it gives the right to workers to form trade unions, engage in collective bargaining and strikes. It is these labour rights that alarmed the British government which sought a specific "opt out" in the talks on the EU reform treaty.
This is in spite of specific restrictions placed on the scope of the charter during the negotiation of the draft constitution. Article II-111 stated that: "This charter does not extend the field of application of Union law beyond the powers of the Union or establish any new power of task for the Union."
It also said that the charter provisions are addressed to the "institutions, bodies and agencies of the Union with due regard of the principle of subsidiarity and to the member states only when they are implementing Union law."
Nevertheless, some British legal experts fear the European Court of Justice (ECJ) could use the charter as a basis for judgments in the field of labour relations, in time extending the right to strike and allegedly threatening British competitiveness.
In tough talks on the charter on Friday the British got a specific protocol written into the mandate for talks effectively giving them an opt-out from the charter.
"For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in the charter creates justifiable rights applicable to the UK except in so far as the UK has provided for such rights in its national law," says the protocol.
Below this protocol in a footnote the mandate notes that: "Two delegations reserved their right to join in the protocol".
The mandate does not name either state, but EU officials confirmed yesterday that Ireland and Poland had sought the reference.