On 10 December 2025, Human Rights Day, the Vice-President of the Court, Arnfinn Bårdsen, spoke at a conference in Brussels marking the 25^th anniversary of the proclamation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, entitled 25 Years of Rights: Reflecting on the Impact of the Charter.

Speaking at the first panel on the topic “Two anniversaries, two overlapping protection systems – the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter”, the Vice-President of the Court noted that, at a time when Europe faces an unprecedented combination of challenges, we must stand united around our shared values. He highlighted that the Charter and the Convention are key manifestations of these values, kept alive and effective “through the joint efforts over time by the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights,” Vice-President Bårdsen said. He also made clear the pivotal role of independent national courts.

He further emphasized that the 75-year history of the Convention goes hand in hand with the history of Europe, noting that the idea behind the Convention was as simple as it was profound: peace, freedom, and prosperity in Europe were to be secured through the effective protection of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights. Through the individual complaint mechanism, the Court provides individual justice, it operates as a standard setting pan-European court of precedents, and it is meant to be early warning mechanism against new tendencies of totalitarianism. 

Addressing today’s challenges, Vice-President Bårdsen concluded: “The storms and dark clouds of our time are not an expression of the defeat of the Convention system. On the contrary, it is a brutal confirmation of the Convention’s constant topicality and necessity. And a serious reminder that the work for the rule of law, democracy and human rights is never really over. It is a call to an untiring effort.”

In the subsequent moderated conversation with judge Siniša Rodin of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Vice-President Bårdsen emphasised that despite the different procedural configurations of the two Courts, there is a well-established presumption that European Union Law via the Charter provides an equivalent protection of fundamental rights as that of the European Convention of Human Rights (the Bosporus presumption). This allows for a high degree of shared responsibility. The two European systems – the Convention and the Charter – are thus complementary, reciprocally reinforcing each other.

This is not only due to the common substantive core of protected rights and freedoms, but also because of the constant cross-fertilisation of relevant case-law, whereby the two courts ensure as far as possible coherence while allowing the level of protection under EU law develops beyond the minimum standards of the Convention.

The Vice-President also recalled that although the origins of the two instruments may differ, they serve in today’s Europe a joint and pivotal purpose in protecting our democracies from further backsliding, in stopping the erosion of the rule of law and in safeguarding human dignity, i.e., in upholding the European legal identity.