6. The Charter Again, a review of the discussion surrounding the application of the Charter in national contexts is beyond the scope of this Toolkit. We would point out the essential provisions which provide the legal basis for the application of the Charter in criminal proceedings.    Article 51(1) This Charter is addressed to … the Member States only when they are implementing EU law (emphasis added). The CJEU has stated in relation to this provision that ‘the application of EU law entails the applicability of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Charter’.15 Under Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union, the Charter ‘has the same legal value as the Treaties’; as such it can be invoked directly, and enjoy supremacy in the same way as treaty provisions on free movement (see Van Gend above). Parts of the Charter (such as Article 27) do not have direct effect without implementing measures, but the rights relevant here (Article 6 (right to liberty), Article 47 (right to a fair trial / effective remedy) and Article 48 (defence rights)) are categorical rights and may be invoked in disputes falling within the scope of the Directives. Based on the above there is no doubt about the following piece of advice:  You can invoke the Charter together with the Directives. Even if a provision of the Directives does not itself have direct effect, the provisions of the Charter can be relied upon directly by individuals in relation to any issue falling within the scope of the Directives. Conflicting rules of national law must be set aside. C. INVOKING THE DIRECTIVES 1. Brandish the Directive In the Toolkits on the Interpretation & Translation Directive and Right to Information Directive, we several times recommend taking action at the pre-trial stage, mostly in the context of initial police questioning. In this context, we specifically say that you should refer to the Directive. Of course, the police station is not the place for a legal argument in the same way as a court. However, we advise action based on the Directive in order to create a record, within police protocols / minutes, which you will be able to refer back to in the context of invoking a remedy later on before the courts. In addition, the fact of referring explicitly to the Directive is an important part of the process of establishing the Directive as a normative framework in practice. In this regard we would cite the initiative of some lawyers in Spain. Challenging the apparently limited role of the lawyer in police interrogations as specified in the criminal procedure law, several lawyers decided to take a more active role in police interrogations in order to protect their clients’ right to silence. This resulted in a complaint16 to the Madrid Bar by the local police force, in which it 15 16 Case C-617/10 Åklagaren v Åkerberg Fransson ECLI:EU:C:2013:105, paragraph 21. Available here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByaSopTTggsPQ0dNNE1oWk11X2M/edit. 7