UNIFORMITY OR MINIMUM STANDARD OF PROTECTION OF EU FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS?

For the first time in history, the Tribunal Constitucional (Constitutional Court, Spain), by Order 86/2011, of June 9, (RTC 2011/86), presented three questions to the ECJ (which has delivered by judgment of 26 February 2013) concerning the level of protection of fundamental rights in the European Union territory, regarding European surrenders of convicted in absentia. In that case, it becomes apparent one of the existing problems between European countries: the different protection provided in each of fundamental rights recognized in international, European and national legal instruments. Due to this diversity, Spanish TC asked the ECJ on what should be the level of protection that Member States should provide in their respective territories, ultimately by posing the following dilemma: Can an EU Member State provide a greater level of protection to citizens involved in legal proceedings than offered by European instruments and European courts? or conversely, should the Member State give the same content to the fundamental rights recognized by the European Court of Human Rights or the Court of Justice of the EU? It seems that the CJEU has chosen the uniformity of protection of fundamental rights.