ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of how fundamental rights were treated in the European Community (EC)/EU before the adoption of the Charter and focuses on the drafting process of the Charter. It explores new phenomena on EU democracy deduced from the Charter and its drafting process. The chapter describes the reasons why it is necessary for the EU to draft its own Charter of Fundamental Rights, even though all Member States are in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and have their own constitution providing fundamental rights. Since 1990, several institutions, organizations and political parties have demanded that the EU create its own Charter of Fundamental Rights. In drafting the Charter of Fundamental Rights, members of the national parliaments formally participated with the members of the Parliament. The Charter is innovative in including economic and social fundamental rights as well as the more traditional civil and political rights.
