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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 15 February 2007 (ratified) 1 March 2007 (established) |
| Jurisdiction | European Union |
| Headquarters | Schwarzenbergplatz 11 A-1040Vienna Austria 48°11′53″N16°22′29″E / 48.198179°N 16.374628°E /48.198179; 16.374628 |
| Agency executive |
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| Key document | |
| Website | fra |
TheEuropean Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, usually known in English as theFundamental Rights Agency (FRA), is aVienna-basedagency of the European Union inaugurated on 1 March 2007. It was established byCouncil Regulation (EC) No 168/2007 of 15 February 2007.
The FRA is an EU body tasked with "collecting and analysing data onfundamental rights with reference to, in principle, all rights listed in theCharter"; however, it is intended to focus particularly on "the thematic areas within the scope ofEU law".[1]
Those nine thematic areas are defined by Council Decision No 252/2013/EU of 11 March 2013, establishing a Multiannual Framework for 2013–2017 for the Agency. They are: access to justice; victims of crime; information society; Roma integration; judicial co-operation; rights of the child; discrimination; immigration andintegration of migrants; and racism andxenophobia.
The FRA's primary methods of operation are surveys, reports, provision of expert assistance toEU bodies,member states, andEU candidate countries and potential candidate countries, and raising awareness about fundamental rights.[2] The FRA is not mandated to intervene in individual cases but rather to investigate broad issues and trends.
The FRA was established in 2007 as the successor to theEuropean Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), which was also based in Vienna. The EUMC's mandate was narrower than that of the FRA, as it was restricted to issues ofracism andxenophobia.
The need for a new human rights institution was questioned given that human rights policy was a principal concern of theCouncil of Europe (CoE), of which all EU member states were also members.[3] In 2007 the British Conservative MEPSyed Kamall said: "The Fundamental Rights Agency will take £20m (30m euros) of taxpayers' money and use it to advance a partisan agenda with little accountability to anyone".[4] In 2010 the German newspaperDie Welt reported that the centre-right French politicianPierre Lellouche, then EU minister in theSarkozy government, questioned "the added value" of the FRA when the Council of Europe already took care of human rights.[5]
The EUMC grew from the Commission on Racism and Xenophobia (CRX), established in 1994, and also known as the Kahn Commission. The CRX was transformed into the EUMC in June 1998; officially established by Council Regulation (EC) No 1035/97 of 2 June 1997.
Since its inception, the FRA has carried out surveys and published reports which are available online. A full list of publications is given on Publications & resources > Publications. This section discusses reports that have seen significant attention from outside observers.
In March 2014, FRA published a major survey onviolence against women, based on face-to-face interviews with over 42,000 women from across the 28 Member States of the EU.[6][7] The survey asked about their experiences of physical,sexual and psychologicalviolence including incidents ofintimate partner violence ('domestic violence'). Questions also asked about incidents ofstalking,sexual harassment andonline harassment as well as their experience ofviolence in childhood.
According to the responses of the report some of the key findings indicated that:
In September 2009 the EP adopted a resolution condemning a "Law on the Protection of Minors", which was then under discussion in Lithuania, as "homophobic" and requested the FRA to issue a legal opinion on whether the draft law was compatible with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.[9] The Lithuanian Parliament responded by adopting a resolution that condemned the EP's resolution as an "illegal act" (pointing to the fact that the FRA explicitly has no mandate to examine the legislation adopted by Member States) and requesting the Lithuanian Government to take legal action against the EP before theEuropean Court of Justice.[10]
In 2009, FRA released a survey on the experiences ofdiscrimination,racist crime, and policing ofminority group andimmigration groups in the EU. The survey was based on the responses of 23,000 individuals from selected ethnic minority and immigrant groups, and additionally, 5,000 people from the majority population living in the same areas as minorities in 10Member States.[11][12]Key findings of the survey include that:
A second round of the survey (EU-MIDIS II) is currently underway, and the results will be published in 2016. This will collect comparable data, and assess the impact of national anti-discrimination and equality legislation and policies in the EU.[15]
In 2013, FRA conducted anonline survey to identify howlesbian,gay,bisexual andtransgender (LGBT) people living in the European Union experience the fulfilment of their fundamental rights. This followed a 2009 report onhomophobia anddiscrimination on grounds ofsexual orientation orgender identity[16] which identified the need for comparative data on this issue.The results reflect the experiences of more than 93,000 individuals[17] who completed the online survey across Europe. The aim was to support the development of more effective laws and policies to fight discrimination, violence and harassment, improving equal treatment across society.[18]
From the findings, it was noted that:
A second round of the survey (EU-LGBTI II) is currently underway, and the results will be published in 2020
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. This will collect comparable data in order to compare the results with the prior survey.[21]
The online survey methodology was chosen to ensure the anonymity of ‘hard-to-reach’ or ‘closeted’ LGBT populations, to encourage reporting of sensitive or negative experiences, such as criminal victimisation, and eliminate bias, which could have been introduced by telephone or face-to-face interview approaches.[22]Multiple responses were discouraged through the length (approximately 30 minutes) and complexity of the survey, while the input process in the different countries was closely monitored for falsifications. The results are not intended to be representative of all LGBT people in the EU, but provide the largest collection of empirical evidence on the experiences of LGBT people in Europe to date.[22]Data about the perceptions of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity of the general public was not included in the survey, as it is already collected byEurobarometer. The analysis of the results in the EU LGBT survey – Main results report compares some Eurobarometer data with the EU LGBT survey results.[22]
The Agency has amulti-annual Roma programme to allow it "to make regular reports on progress made and provide evidence based advice to the EU institutions and Member States based on data systematically collected across the EU". Data from the 2011 Roma survey is available via anonline data explorer toolArchived 21 June 2016 at theWayback Machine.
EUMC published reports are available from the website here[23] of the FRA, the EUMC successor agency. A selection is given below.
In 2005, the EUMC published a working definition ofantisemitism, whose stated purpose was to "provide a guide for identifying incidents, collecting data and supporting the implementation and enforcement of legislation dealing with antisemitism". In November 2013 the definition was removed from the organisation's website in 'a clear-out of non-official documents'. A spokesperson stated that the document had never been viewed as a valid definition and that "We are not aware of any official definition".[24][25]
In May 2004, a report labeled 'Manifestations ofantisemitism in the EU 2002 – 2003' was published.[26]It detailed a rise in attacks targeting Jewish businesses,synagogues,cemeteries and individuals. The countries with the most significant number of attacks wereBelgium,France,Germany, theNetherlands and theUnited Kingdom. A second report, on perceptions of antisemitism, was also published.[27]
The largest monitoring project ever to be commissioned regardingIslamophobia was undertaken following9/11 by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC).
From a total of 75 reports, 15 from each member state, a synthesis report, entitled "Summary report on Islamophobia in the EU after 11 September 2001", was published in May 2002.[28]The report highlighted occasions in which citizens abused and sometimes violently attackedMuslims. Discrimination included verbal abuse, indiscriminately accusing Muslims of responsibility for the attacks, removing women'shijab, spitting, using the name "Usama" as a pejorative epithet, and assaults. The report concluded that "a greater receptivity towards anti-Muslim and other xenophobic ideas and sentiments has, and may well continue, to become more tolerated".[28]
