Last Thursday (12 September 2024) saw the launch of a landmark report entitled “The Interaction between the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and General Principles with the Windsor Framework.” The report was co-authored by Maynooth’s Professor Tobias Lock, Director of the Maynooth Centre for European Law (alongside Dr Eleni Frantziou, Durham University and Anurag Deb, Queen’s University Belfast). The report examines the continued relevance and application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in Northern Ireland following Brexit. It demonstrates the ongoing applicability of the Charter in Northern Ireland through the Windsor Framework (the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland) and the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement. The report contains a detailed analysis on how Articles 2 of the Windsor Framework and Article 4 of the Withdrawal Agreement underpin the application of the Charter and general principles of EU aw in Northern Ireland to this day with a particular emphasis on the remedies that are associated with the Charter (as opposed to remedies otherwise available in domestic law). A particular focus of the report is on Article 2 of the Windsor Framework, which established a non-diminution guarantee ensuring no reduction in rights, safeguards, or equality of opportunity as set out in the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.
The report can be found here.
A recording of the launch can be watched here: