MEPs seek clarity about rights agency’s role

Members of the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee are to meet the European Commission and the Council of Ministers over concerns about the role of the new Fundamental Rights Agency.

The meeting is expected to take place during the Parliament’s plenary session of 24-27 September and will focus on the priorities of the agency, which is based in Vienna and which started work in March. The meeting will take place at the request of the chairman of the civil liberties committee, French Liberal MEP, Jean-Marie Cavada, who wrote to Franco Frattini, commissioner for justice, freedom and security, in July requesting a trilogue "to define what the legislative institutions expect from this agency".

MEPs expressed concern during a hearing with the agency’s executive board this week (27 August) over its ability to confront member states if serious human rights violations were to occur. Elena Paciotti, member of the executive board, said the agency’s work would only be relevant if member states followed up its findings and addressed problems. "Member states shouldn’t think they have solved the problem of fundamental rights if they set up an agency. There needs to be political follow-up," she said.

The civil liberties committee is also concerned that the appointment of a director of the agency is taking longer than it should. Francisco Fonseca Morillo, a Commission appointee on the executive board, said that more than 100 applications had been received prior to the closing date for the job in April and that the Commission had reduced the numbers and was now assessing the management skills of the remaining candidates. After Frattini and Siim Kallas, the commissioner for administrative affairs have interviewed candidates, a short-list will be sent to the civil liberties committee by the start of October, Fonseca Morillo said.

Racism and xenophobia in the EU

• In eight of the 11 member states where data was available, an increase in racist violence and crime was recorded. This included an average annual increase of more than 70% in Denmark in 2000-05 (from 28 incidents to 85) and an increase of more than 45% in Slovakia in 2000-06 (from 35 to 188)

• In the UK there was an average annual increase of more than 9% in 2002-06 in racist violence and crime (from 56,557 incidents to 61,758). In Germany there was an average annual increase of 5.3% in 2001-06 (14,725 incidents to 18,142)

• In France, there was an annual average increase of more than 62% in anti-Semitic crime in 2001-06 (from 219 incidents to 541). In Germany there was an annual average increase of 1.7% in anti-Semitic crime in the same time period (from 1,629 incidents to 1,662)

• The FRA warns that countries which appear to record the highest number of racist crimes are often those with the best systems of recording and keeping statistics and would explain the big disparities between some member states

* Key points from a report by the Fundamental Rights Agency on racism and xenophobia in the EU.

Members of the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee are to meet the European Commission and the Council of Ministers over concerns about the role of the new Fundamental Rights Agency.