The creation of a European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights is a fundamental element of the EU policy to respect and promote fundamental rights.

On 15 February 2007, the Council adopted Regulation (CE) No 168/2007 establishing a European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). The launch of the Agency took place 1 March 2007, hosted by the European Commission, the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia and the Austrian authorities in Vienna. The Fundamental Rights Agency replaces and builds on the work of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC). Going beyond the work of the Monitoring Centre, the Fundamental Rights Agency will have three key functions: to collect information and data; provide advice to the European Union and its Member States and promote dialogue with civil society to raise public awareness of fundamental rights.

During the course of 2007, the agency will become fully operational: later this year the EU institutions will adopt the Multi-Annual Framework to define the precise areas of the Agency's activities, and the Director of the Agency will take up office. During the interim period, the Agency will focus its work on combating racism, xenophobia and related intolerance.

Among those attending the launch of the Agency in Vienna were the President and Vice-President of the European Commission, the Austrian Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs, the German Minister of Justice and the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe.

President José Manuel Barroso stated: "The European Commission is fully committed to promoting the respect of fundamental rights at EU level. The establishment of the Fundamental Rights Agency is a step forward in providing the European Union with the expertise it needs to successfully combat discrimination. Once the Agency is fully operational, I believe it will provide a valuable resource for the Commission and other EU institutions. I see the Agency as a complement rather than competition to work being done elsewhere".

Vice-President Frattini also warmly welcomed the creation of the Fundamental Rights Agency "We must promote fundamental rights if we are to achieve a Europe of which we can all be proud. A Europe which is richly diverse, where people are integrated and live side by side and gender, racial and other inequalities are overcome. European citizens support this: a recent survey found that 73% of them want more EU level decision making on promoting and protecting fundamental rights. The Fundamental Rights Agency will be one of the key resources to facilitate this".

I) Latest developments

• The Vacancy notice for the position of Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has been published in the OJ C 74 A. Applications should be sent by 30 April 2007
• Council Regulation (EC) No 168/2007 of 15 February 2007 establishing a European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (corrigendum)

The decision on 15 February 2007 ended a long debate in which support for setting up such an Agency was widely expressed by stakeholders. In June 1999 the Cologne European Council had suggested examining the need for an Agency for human rights and democracy, an idea supported by the European Parliament. On 12 and 13 December 2003, the representatives of the Member States meeting in Brussels within the European Council, decided to extend the remit of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, in order to convert it into a Fundamental Rights Agency Furthermore, the European Parliament called the Commission to submit a legislative proposal concerning the Agency in its Report on promotion and protection of fundamental rights: the role of national and European institutions, including the Fundamental Rights Agency, adopted on 26 May 2005.

By the establishment of the Fundamental Rights Agency the Commission is implementing the first priority of the Action Plan "The Hague Programme: Ten priorities for the next five years - The Partnership for European renewal in the field of Freedom, Security and Justice".

II) General context

What is the Objective of the Fundamental Rights Agency?

The Fundamental Rights Agency is an independent Community Agency.

As such, its objective is to provide assistance and expertise relating to fundamental rights to the relevant Community institutions and its Member States when implementing Community law, in order to support them when they take measures or formulate courses of action within their respective spheres of competence to fully respect the fundamental rights.

The Agency will be a data collection and analysis body, with the capacity to issue advice, much as the current European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia is (albeit obviously within an enlarged material scope). However, the Fundamental Rights Agency's basic Regulation gives more emphasis than the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia's to two dimensions: raising public awareness and cooperation with civil society.

What are the Agency's tasks?

The tasks entrusted to the Agency by its regulation will be:

Relating to information and data: collect, record, analyse and disseminate relevant objective, reliable and comparable information and data; develop methods to improve the quality of data; and carry out or encourage scientific research and surveys.

Related to the provision of advice :

• formulate and publish conclusions and opinions for the Union and its Member States when implementing Community law, either on its own initiative or at the request of the EP, the Council or the Commission;
• issue an annual report on the fundamental rights issues covered by the areas of Agency's activity, also highlighting examples of good practice,
• publish thematic reports.

Related to co-operation with civil society and awareness-raising: develop a communication strategy and promote dialogue with civil society, in order to raise public awareness of fundamental rights and actively inform about its work.

These tasks do NOT belong to the Fundamental Rights Agency:

1. examination of individual complaints;
2. regulatory decision-making powers;
3. monitoring of the situation of Fundamental Rights in the Member States for the purposes of Article 7 of the Treaty of the EU.
4. dealing with the legality of legislative acts within the meaning of Article 230 of the Treaty (which refers to the Court of Justice's power to review the legality of Community acts), or questioning whether a Member State has failed to fulfil an obligation under the Treaty within the meaning of Article 226).

On which areas can the Agency carry out its activities?

The Agency shall carry out its tasks within the sphere competencies of the Community, as laid down in the EC Treaty.

The Council has made two declarations stating that:

• bearing in mind that the Agency will acquire general expertise on fundamental rights, the Union institutions may, within the framework of the legislative process and with due regard to each others' powers, benefit, as appropriate and on a voluntary basis, from such expertise also within the areas of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. This general expertise may also be of use to the Member States that wish to avail themselves thereof when they areimplementing legislative acts of the Union in that area.
• it may seek the assistance of the Agency as an independent person if it finds it useful during a possible procedure under Article 7 TEU. The Agency will however not carry out systematic and permanent monitoring of Member State for the purposes of Article 7 TEU.

The areas on which the Fundamental Rights Agency can carry out its tasks: the Multi-Annual Work Programme

According to the terms of the Regulation, the Agency "shall refer in carrying out its tasks to fundamental rights as defined in Article 6(2) of the Treaty on European Union".

The Regulation foresees that a Multi-Annual Framework shall determine the thematic areas of the Agency's activities.

This Multi-Annual Framework shall be adopted by the Council, upon Commission proposal, and after consultation with the EP. The Commission has to consult the Management Board of the Agency before putting forward its proposal.

The Framework will cover 5 years, and shall in any case include the fight against racism, xenophobia and related intolerance (as a result of all EU institutions' endeavour to ensure that the Fundamental Rights Agency's work continues to cover racism, xenophobia and related intolerance).

Until the Multi-annual Framework is adopted, the Agency shall carry out its tasks in the thematic areas of the fight against racism, xenophobia and related intolerance.

Which countries is the Agency concerned with?

• From a geographical point of view, the Agency covers the EU and its 27 Member States.
• The Agency will also be open for participation of candidate countries as observers (Turkey, Croatia, the fYRoM), after a decision of the relevant Association Council,which will indicate in particular thenature, extent and manner of this countries' participation in the Agency's work, taking into account the specific status of each country.
• The Council may also invite also the Western Balkans countries ( Albania, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro), which have concluded a stabilisation and association agreement with the EC to participate to the Agency also as observers (a decision of the relevant Association Council shall follow, as for CCs).

How Will the Agency cooperate with the Council of Europe?

According to its basic Regulation, the Agency has to coordinate its activities with those of the Council of Europe in order to avoid duplication, ensure they are complementary, and provide added value to the Council of Europe's work. To this end, an agreement between the Community and the Council of Europe shall be concluded. Also, the Council of Europe appoints an independent person to the Management Board, who can also participate in meetings of the Executive Board.

Which other bodies will the Agency co-operate with?

The agency will co-operate with a number of bodies:

• Member States, in particular through National Liaison Officers, who may inter alia give an opinion on the Agency's annual work programme.
• National Human Rights Institutions of the Member States .
• Other Community and Union agencies, such as the Gender Institute, in order to ensure mutual support and avoid duplication. This will be ensured notably through the signature of memorandums of understanding and the possibility to participate in each other's meetings.
• Civil society: cooperation will be organised through a flexible cooperation network, the Fundamental Rights Platform, which is a mechanism for exchange of information and the pooling of knowledge.
• OSCE and UN bodies in human rights area.

Impact assessment

An impact assessment for the Multi Annual Framework will be launched accordingly in due time in 2007.

Before making the proposal, the Commission carefully assessed the impacts of Union measures under different policy options. The results of the impact assessment are presented in the Impact Assessment Report (PDF File 234 KB).

The assessment procedure was supported by the preparatory study for the impact assessment and ex-ante evaluation of Fundamental Rights Agency, the final report of which is available.
Preparatory Study for Impact Assessment and Exante Evaluation of Fundamental Rights agency (PDF File 564 KB) annexes (PDF File 464 KB)
(Note: the final report of the preparatory study has been prepared by a private consultant, and the Commission cannot accept responsibility for its contents)

Public consultation

In order to thoroughly prepare its proposal, the Commission launched a public consultation, by means of a Communication presented on October 25th 2004 (PDF File 134-216 KB) and accompanied by a Working Paper of the Commission Services (PDF File 345 KB).
The Commission also prepared a list of questions (PDF File 55 KB) that could be used as guidelines for comments.

In reply to this Communication, the Commission received numerous written contributions.
A preliminary analysis (PDF File 189 KB) of these is available.
(Note: this analysis has been prepared by a private consultant and the Commission cannot accept responsiblity for its contents)

The Commission further pursued public consultation by organising a public hearing on January 25th. The hearing was opened by Franco Frattini, Vice President of the European Commission, Luc Frieden, Minister of Justice of Luxembourg, and Jean-Louis Bourlanges, Chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.
The programme (PDF File 147 KB) included speakers whose interventions launched discussions with all participants (PDF File 85 KB).
A Report (PDF File 231 KB) of this hearing is available.
(Note: this report has been prepared by a private consultant and the Commission cannot accept responsiblity for its contents)

The Council adopted the Regulation establishing the Agency on 15 Februry and the FRA has been inaugurated on the 1st of March 2007.