Establishment of a European Agency on Fundamental Rights: Opportunities and Challenges

In October 2004, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the scope, missions and tasks of the future Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union. This consultation follows the decision of the heads of the states and governments of EU member states, taken in December 2003, to extend the mandate of the Vienna-based European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) into a Fundamental Rights Agency.

The Commission’s communication highlights that the Agency should be a “crossroads”, facilitating contacts between the different players in the field of fundamental rights; allowing synergies and increased dialogue between all the stakeholders concerned; and satisfying the needs of, respectively, the EU institutions, the member states and civil society.

However, the communication also makes it clear that the Agency will have neither judicial nor decision-making powers. In addition, it emphasizes that the tasks of the Agency, which will be set up by an instrument of secondary legislation (regulation), should not encroach on the powers conferred on the EU institutions by existing treaties, and more particularly on the supervisory role of the European Commission as regards the application of the community law.

This paper analyzes some aspects of the debate about the role of the Agency, focusing on the definition of the Agency’s field of action, its remit, its tasks, and the synergies it might develop with European and international institutions active in the field of human rights.