http://dx.doi.org/10.59704/594f98d58898d34d https://verfassungsblog.de/the-eu-charters-odyssey/ The EU Charter’s Odyssey - A Canvas for a Shared European Identity Gašperin Wischhoff, Jakob eng 2024-10-30 electronic resource text/html ddc:342 EU EU EU Charter fundamental rights EU Verfassungsblog Verfassungsblog--2366-7044 CC BY-SA 4.0 Since its inception, the Union has grown into a tremendously powerful political actor through ever-increasing legal harmonization. This development has significantly marginalized the role of national apex courts – the lighthouses of democracy. Moreover, the globally observed trajectory of authoritarian forces is shaking EU's roots and questioning the vision of a lasting European polity. To fend off all these challenges, the Union should be centred around the hard-won humanistic freedoms and common values defined in the Charter, serving as a basis for common identification and a canvas to project shared visions of a political entity.