Constitutional and legal values of the European Union

The European Union is founded on the principles of freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, the inviolability of human dignity and respect for human rights, including the rights of national minorities. These fundamental constitutional principles of the EU was elevated to the rank of constitutional and legal values of the European Union (EU). This is reflected in the consolidation of the constitutional values of the EU Charter on fundamental rights 2000, and the Lisbon Treaty of 2007, which as a result of successful ratification by all member States of the EU entered into force on 1 January 2009. Constitutional and legal values of the European Union act as the guiding principles of the constitutions of the countries of the European Union. The category "values" for the first time enshrined in the EU Charter on fundamental rights 2000. The EU Charter became legally binding with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty (1 January 2009). The preamble of the EU Charter proclaims that "conscious of its spiritual and moral historical heritage, the Union is based on indivisible and universal values - human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity; the Union rests on the principle of democracy and the rule of law". That is the first time in European Union law establishes the system of constitutional values, where the fundamental underlying principle is the principle of the inviolability of human dignity. Further, the preamble establishes that this Charter reaffirms the rights, which stem primarily from the common to the member States constitutional traditions and international obligations. Thus, it is emphasized that the system of constitutional and legal values of the EU is its formation in European law from the constitutional traditions of all European Union countries. At the same time, indicating that they are common to all EU countries. The Lisbon Treaty introduces significant changes in the founding treaties of the EU, namely the Treaty on European Union and to the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union, which supersedes the current Treaty establishing the European community. Important legal significance for the European Union has a new article 6 of the Treaty on European Union, which States that "the Union recognises the rights, freedoms and principles set out in the Charter of fundamental rights 2000, and the Charter will have the same legal force as the Treaties themselves". In the same article, indicated that the Union joins the European Convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms 1950. Thus, the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty of 2007, and as a result, the acquisition of the EU Charter of fundamental rights of 2000 legal force opens a new stage of European integration, which will lead the European Union to a new stage of development.

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