In discursul de la Madrid, Jose Zapatero, presedinte al Partidului Socialist al Muncitorilor din Spania si sef al unuia dintre cele mai progresiste guverne din Europa, a rezumat una din prioritatile Presedintiei spaniole a UE: „Pe scurt, vrem ca Uniunea Europeana sa fie o fabrica de drepturi si un garant al libertatilor si dorim ca europenii sa o vada ca atare. Astfel, Presedintia va promova initiative care vor intari si garanta exercitarea drepturilor incluse in Charta Drepturilor Fundamentale ale Uniunii Europene, care intra in vigoare cu aprobarea Tratatului de la Lisabona. Este un pas urias catre consolidarea Uniunii asa cum este ea in realitate, nu doar o uniune economica, ci si una politica si sociala.”

(Citeste si Spanish parliament to extend rights to apes pentru a intelege agenda interna radicala a socialistilor spanioli)

O inregistrare mai veche cu europarlamentarul conservator Daniel Hannan vorbind despre „drepturile” din Charta Uniunii Europene a Drepturilor Fundamentale si includerea ei in Tratatul de la Lisabona:

Madam President, Disraeli once replied to a delegation with the phrase ‘to the liberalism that they profess, I prefer the liberties we enjoy, to the rights of man, the rights of Englishmen’. Our national tradition of rights is not merely different from the European conception of universal entitlements; it is incompatible. We point to specific liberties, ones at specific moments guaranteed in specific charters, whether Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights or in simple statute acts; we do not put our faith in universalist human rights codes interpreted by judges for whom we cannot vote. I have to say, our tradition has had more success than that pursued by some of the continental states which have taken the universalist path. We have not fallen, as other countries have, either to revolution or to dictatorship. We believe that all rights are residual in the individual. As Aldous Huxley once put it, ‘liberties are not given, they are taken’. That is why I fundamentally oppose the incorporation of the EU Charter in the Lisbon Treaty without a referendum. The people must be consulted: Pactio Olisipio censenda est!

SI din nou Daniel Hannan, pe aceeasi tema:
Human rights are not in danger, democracy is!