Activites

• 2007/02/22 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Regulation 2007/168
  • OJ L 053 22.02.2007, p. 0001
• #2781
• 2007/02/15 Council Meeting
• 2007/02/15 End of procedure in Parliament
• 2007/02/15 Act adopted by Council after consultation of Parliament
• #2768
• 2006/12/04 Council Meeting
  • 2768
• 2006/11/30 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T6-0509/2006 summary

    The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Kinga Gál (EPP-ED, HU) and approved the Commission proposal as amended by Parliament on 12 October 2006. (Please see the preceding document.) The resolution was adopted by 431 votes in favour to 94 against with 16 abstentions. This resolution is closely connected to that drafted by Magda Kósáné Kovács (PES, HU) of the same date. (Please see CNS/2005/0125.)

• 2006/10/12 Results of vote in Parliament
  • Results of vote in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T6-0414/2006 summary

    The European Parliament decided to postpone the final vote on the reports by Kinga GÁL (EPP-ED, HU) and Magda KOSANE KOVACS (PES, HU) on the establishment of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency to signal that it insists the scope of the new body to be extended to intergovernmental cooperation in policing, justice, immigration and counter-terrorism issues. The rapporteurs proposed that the final vote should be postponed in order to give the Commission more time to reach a compromise with the Council. Certain Member States favour the proposition that the Agency should deal not only with first pillar issues but also third pillar ones such as police and justice cooperation which includes measures on immigration and counter-terrorism. (Please see CNS/2005/0125).Accordingly, Parliament approved the decision of its competent committees and accepted the 43 amendments proposed by the latter. It also rejected by a large majority (113 votes for, 489 against and 16 abstentions) the proposition of the IND/DEM group to reject the Commission’s entire proposal. The European Parliament’s amendments largely dealt with the question of enlarging the competences of the Agency. The key amendments were as follows:- as the Agency is to be built upon the existing European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, the work of the Agency should continue to cover the phenomena of racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism, as well as the protection of rights of persons belonging to minorities, as essential elements in the protection of fundamental rights;- the Agency should make its technical expertise available to the European Parliament as well as to the Council;- it should develop a communication strategy and promote dialogue with civil society, in order to raise public awareness of fundamental rights and actively inform the public of its work;- the Management Board of the Agency, taking due account of the guidelines arising from European Parliament resolutions and Council conclusions in the field of fundamental rights, shall, on the basis of a proposal by the Commission, adopt a multi-annual framework;- the Agency should carry out its tasks within the thematic areas determined by the multi-annual framework. However, the Agency shall also respond to requests from the European Parliament, the Council or the Commission that fall outside those thematic areas, provided that its financial and human resources so permit;- in order to ensure close cooperation with Member States, each Member State shall nominate a government official as a national liaison officer;- the organisations with which the Agency should cooperate should include national human rights institutions, and the OSCE, especially the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the United Nations and other international organisations;- the appointee of the Council of Europe should sit on the Agency’s the Agency's Executive Board as well as its Management Board; - Parliament has inserted a clause establishing and defining the duties of a Fundamental Rights Platform; - the term of office of the members and alternate members of the Management Board shall be five years. It shall not be renewable;- the geographical scope of the Agency should be widened from EU Member States to both candidate countries and to states with stabilisation and association agreements;- Parliament wants more say in how the agency works, including a consultative role on appointment of the body’s director and on the agency’s five-year work plan;- the Agency should have a Scientific committee which will consist of eleven independent experts and will guarantee the scientific quality of the work.Lastly, the European Parliament wants the deadline for the independent external evaluation of the Agency to be 31 December 2011, rather than 31 December 2009 as originally proposed. Such an evaluation should include an assessment of the possible need to modify the Agency's tasks, scope, and areas of activity or structure.

• #2752
• 2006/10/05 Council Meeting
  • 2752 summary

    The Council had an exchange of views on the state of play regarding the establishment and effective functioning of the Agency.The debate focused on the main outstanding question, which is the extension of the scope of the Agency to questions relating to police and judicial penal cooperation (Title VI of the Treaty on European Union, the so-called "Third Pillar").The Presidency called on Member States, in a constructive spirit, to help in finding a compromise solution to this question, with a view to establishing of the Agency before the end of the year, in accordance with the timeframe set by the European Council in June 2006.In this respect, the Presidency indicated that it would submit a compromise solution to delegations in the near future.

• 2006/09/26 Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading
  • A6-0306/2006
• 2006/09/13 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
• #2736
• 2006/06/12 Council Meeting
  • 2736 summary

    The Council took note of work on a draft Regulation aimed at establishing an EU Agency for Fundamental Rights and on a draft Decision on pursuit by the agency of its activities. It requested the Permanent Representatives Committee to continue work on the remaining outstanding questions so as to enable the Council to reach an agreement.

• 2005/09/29 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2005/06/30 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(2005)0280 summary

    PURPOSE : The establish a European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.PROPOSED ACT : Council Regulation.CONTENT: In 2003 the Member States agreed to build upon the existing European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), based in Vienna and to extend its mandate by turning it into a Human Rights Agency. For legal reasons the Commission is presenting two separate proposals concerning the establishment of the Agency. The first is this Regulation, which is the appropriate instrument for establishing an Agency and the second is a Decision (CNS/2005/0125), which seeks to entrust the Agency with tasks in areas referred to in Article VI of the TEU.The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is the point of reference for the Agency’s mandate. The objective of the Agency will be to provide the relevant EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies with assistance and expertise relating to fundamental rights when defining policies or implementing legislation. The thematic areas of activity will be distinguished by a Multi-annual Framework, determined by an implementing Regulation. The idea of the Agency is to allow the Council, for example, to exploit the Agency’s expertise when acting on a proposal by one third of the Member States, by the European Parliament or by the Commission during the procedure under Article 7 of the TEU. Importantly, the mandate of the Agency will not be to carry out systematic and permanent monitoring of the Member States for the purposes of Article 7. More specifically speaking the Agency will be expected to perform the following operational objectives:§         To collect, record, analyse and disseminate information on how fundamental rights are affected by the implementation of Community policy;§         To identify and validate good practice and to analyse how fundamental rights are respected by the EU institutions when implementing EU law;§         To develop methods whereby the comparability of and quality of the fundamental rights data collected at both an EU and national levels are observed;§         To carry out scientific studies;§         To produce annual reports on the state of play of fundamental rights in the Union.A further role of the Agency will be to collaborate closely with relevant organisations and bodies in order to gain synergies with them. For instance, the work on statistics will be in line with the actions developed in the context of the Community Statistical Programme. To avoid any overlapping, the Agency will build close institutional ties with the Council of Europe and other relevant Community bodies especially with the European Institute for Gender Equality.The Regulation sets out the structure of the Agency by specifying that is shall comprise of:§         a management board;§         an executive board;§         a director;§         a forum.Given that the existing EUMC is located in Vienna the proposal suggests that the Agency should take over the seat of the EUMC in its current location. Upon the adoption of the proposed Regulation and accompanying Decision, existing legislation relating to the EUMC will be repealed.Regarding budgetary implications, it is being proposed that the Agency begin work as early as 1 January 2007, with a considerably extended mandate. In order to take account of the inevitable transition period, a growing budget for the period 2007-20013 is being proposed.For more details concerning the financial implications of this measure, please refer to the financial statement.

  • DG {'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/justice/', 'title': 'Justice'}, FRATTINI Franco

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(2005)0280
• Debate in Council: 2736
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A6-0306/2006
• Debate in Council: 2752
• Results of vote in Parliament: Results of vote in Parliament
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T6-0414/2006
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T6-0509/2006
• Debate in Council: 2768
• : Regulation 2007/168
• : OJ L 053 22.02.2007, p. 0001

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)