ABSTRACT
The three pillars of the European Union are the supranational Economic Monetary Union, the intergovernmental Common Foreign and Security Policy, and the Cooperation of the Interior and Justice, which, since the Treaty of Amsterdam, is officially referred to as Police and Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters. The German Constitutional Court decided that every step towards a further development of the European Union required a parliamentary-democratic legitimacy in the member states. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg played an active part in the development of European fundamental rights. Consequently, the ECJ put the fundamental principle of human rights into concrete terms by recognizing individual fundamental rights in several court decisions. The Treaty of Amsterdam gave a new dimension to the debate on fundamental rights in the European Union. The Treaty of Amsterdam introduced a new phase in the Union's fundamental rights policy. In any case, the European Union (EU)-Charter has already created a new awareness of fundamental rights within the European Union.
