Drafters of an EU Charter of Fundamental Rights have come up with a "balanced and pragmatic" version to put before EU leaders in October, EU Justice Commissioner Antonio Vitorino said Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Vitorino said the document represented "a good basis to reach a consensus" at the next EU summit in Biarritz, France on October 13-14.
"It is a text that is balanced and pragmatic," he said.
At a June 1999 summit in Cologne, Germany, EU leaders ordered the preparation of a rights charter, saying it would make the European Union more relevant to its 375 million citizens.
Critics say the proposed charter would undermine the sovereignty of individual EU member states, but Vitorino said the draft version would require no changes to national constitutions.
Nor would it extend the role of the European Union beyond what it already set out in the treaties on which it is based, he added.
Vitorino is the European Commission's representative on a 62-member "convention" that has been working on the draft. Other members include European MPs and representatives of each EU government -- BRUSSELS (AFP)
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