Abstract

Recently the Court of Justice of the European Union has adopted a series of important decisions recognizing for the first time the horizontal direct effects of some provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. This article asks whether these decisions have contributed to clarify the case law of the Court specifically concerning the constitutional significance of the Charter in the European Union. The answer emerging from the decisions in question is however ambiguous. Some features of the decisions signal an enhanced awareness of the Court concerning rights; other features preserve some of the problems of the previous case law.