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BOSPHORUS HAVA YOLLARI TURİZM VE TİCARET ANONİM ŞİRKETİ
v. IRELAND JUDGMENT
75. This statement has often been repeated by the ECJ, as, notably, in its
opinion on accession by the Community to the Convention1, in which it
opined, in particular, that respect for human rights was “a condition of the
lawfulness of Community acts”.
76. In Kondova2, relied on by the applicant company, the ECJ ruled on
the refusal by the United Kingdom of an establishment request of a
Bulgarian national on the basis of a provision in an association agreement
between the European Community and Bulgaria:
“... Moreover, such measures [of the British immigration authorities] must be
adopted without prejudice to the obligation to respect that national's fundamental
rights, such as the right to respect for his family life and the right to respect for his
property, which follow, for the Member State concerned, from the European
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 4
November 1950 or from other international instruments to which that State may have
acceded.”
B. Relevant treaty provisions3
1. Concerning fundamental rights
77. The case-law developments noted above were reflected in certain
treaty amendments. In the preamble to the Single European Act of 1986, the
Contracting Parties expressed their determination
“to work together to promote democracy on the basis of the fundamental rights
recognised in the constitutions and laws of the Member States, in the Convention for
the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ...”.
78. Article 6 (formerly Article F) of the Treaty on European Union of
1992 reads as follows:
“1. The Union is founded on the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for
human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law, principles which are
common to the Member States.
2. The Union shall respect fundamental rights, as guaranteed by the European
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms signed in
Rome on 4 November 1950 and as they result from the constitutional traditions
common to the Member States, as general principles of Community law.
3. The Union shall respect the national identities of its Member States.
1. Accession by the Community to the European Convention for the Protection of Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Opinion 2/94 [1996] ECR I-1759.
2. The Queen v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex parte Eleanora Ivanova
Kondova, Case C-235/99 [2001] ECR I-6427.
3. Given the period covered by the facts of the case, the former numbering of Articles of
the EC Treaty is used (followed, where appropriate, by the present numbering).
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