Mrs Reding, a supporter of a future “United States of Europe”, hailed the increased use of the EU charter by Europe’s Court of Justice in Luxembourg as step towards a European “Bill of Rights” along the lines of America’s constitution.
One Big Dfference: The US Constitution was ratified by the States. This thing is being imposed by unelected "commissioners" who function more like Politburo members than democratic representatives.
She said: “I could imagine that one day citizens in the member states will be able to rely directly on the charter – without the need for a clear link to EU law. The charter should be Europe's very own Bill of Rights.”
When he was Prime Minister, Tony Blair promised that he had secured an “opt-out” from the charter.
However, since the Lisbon Treaty entered into force in 2009, a flurry of EU court rulings relating to Britain’s implementation of European legislation have overruled national judges and called into question parliamentary sovereignty.
A European Commission report on Monday praised the EU courts for bypassing Britain’s “opt-out” of the Charter of Fundamental Rights by using it as a legal source in judgments that have primacy in British law.
Mr Grayling attacked Labour for failing to veto the EU rights charter during negotiations on the last European treaty five years ago.
“Comments like this just underline how determined some senior figures in Brussels are to create a single justice system for the whole EU,” he told the Telegraph.
“They also underline how much the Labour Party let down this country when they signed up to the charter.
"All this is why we need a major re-think of our future relationship with the EU, and to renegotiate our membership and let the British people decide in a referendum.”
Mr Grayling and senior figures in the English judiciary are concerned that European judges are using the charter to make binding rulings when making judgments on Britain’s implementation of EU legislation, which accounts for up to 50 per cent of British laws.
Or much, much more. Here is video of this same commissioner Viviane Reding claiming the at 75 or 80 percent of the laws in the EU member states originate as EU "directives which then have to be translated into national laws."
The Commission on Monday praised the EU courts for “making the charter a reality” by using as source of legal reasoning that has primacy over national law across the EU.
“In 2013, 114 decisions quoted the EU charter, which is almost three times the number of cases of 2011,” said the report.
Mrs Reding lavished praise on the European courts for having “progressively made the charter a reference point in their judgements” and said that all EU commissioners, who draft Brussels legislation, “take an oath” to honour it.
The rulings mean that the EU charter of 54 “fundamental rights”, including a right to strike and to marriage, has taken hold in Britain by stealth, bypassing Mr Blair’s “opt out” and overturning laws made by elected MPs.
Mr Grayling has been forced by a recent EU court ruling on employment law to mount a legal challenge to the charter’s applicability in the UK amid growing anger among MPs. Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip, said that Mrs Reding had shown Labour and Conservative promises to opt out of undesirable EU legislation have been a “complete and utter con job”.
“It is clear that all citizens of the United States of Europe will be able to lay claim to the new rights in this Charter; completely bypassing the will of our elected representatives in Westminster,” he said.