Frattini issues wish-list for rights agency

Date: 19/05/05

The European Commission will next week outline the tasks to be carried out by the EU agency on fundamental rights.

The Vienna-based agency will expand on the work already undertaken by the seven-year-old EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.

Its purpose will be to analyse and collect data on how each EU member state adheres to the basic rights enshrined in the EU's treaties.

MEPs have urged that the agency should at least cover countries which have been recognised as candidates for EU membership and those involved in the European Neighbourhood Programme. The latter include Ukraine, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Moldova and Morocco.

But Franco Frattini, the commissioner for justice, freedom and security, told European Voice that he believes the agency's remit should initially be confined to the EU's member states.

"We should establish a well-functioning agency within the EU and then we will deal with the candidate countries," Frattini said.

The proposal to be adopted by the 25 commissioners next Wednesday (25 May) will also state how the agency can complement the work of other bodies involved in human rights monitoring, such as the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

In a report for the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, Hungarian centre-right MEP Kinga Gál calls for an "institutionalised link" between the Council of Europe and the agency so that overlap can be avoided.

British Labour MEP Claude Moraes said that the agency should be empowered to analyse the situations of the Roma gypsy communities in Romania and Bulgaria both before and after they join the Union.

He urged too that its scope should include EU candidate country Turkey.

Anticipation of a proposal by the European Commission to be adopted on 25 may 2005 about the tasks to be carried out by the EU agency on fundamental rights. The proposal was also expected to state how the agency would complement the work of other bodies involved in human rights monitoring, such as the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

• Primary Source

European Parliament: Report on the promotion and protection of fundamental rights: the role of national and European instititutions, including the Fundamental Rights Agency (A6-0144/2005) http://europarl.europa.eu/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//NONSGML+REPORT+A6-2005-0144+0+DOC+WORD+V0//EN&L=EN&LEVEL=3&NAV=S&LSTDOC=Y

European Commission: DG Justice, Freedom and Security: Fundamental rights: Fundamental Rights Agency http://ec.europa.eu/comm/justice_home/news/consulting_public/fundamental_rights_agency/index_en.htm

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