Spain returns to the days of Franco

[Jim Lane]

20. Good question about the EU

According to what I found on the EU's website:

In the EU, fundamental rights are guaranteed nationally by the constitutions of individual countries and at EU level by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (adopted in 2000 and binding on EU countries since 2009). After they have been through the national courts, individuals may, as a last resort, bring a case before the European Court of Human Rights. (emphasis added)

That confirms my understanding that EU membership involves some surrender of sovereignty. One aspect of that surrender is that member nations can't enforce laws that violate the rights guaranteed in the Charter.

According to what seems to be the text of the Charter], it guarantees freedom of expression (Article 11) and freedom of peaceful assembly (Article 12). I don't know how broadly those provisions have been interpreted, though. (Embedding the link won't work for me -- try http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2007:303:0001:0016:EN DF to read the text.) (OK, I just can't get the link to the 2009 text to work. Here's the text as of 2007; the relevant passages are the same.)