The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report by Kinga GAL (EPP-ED, HU) on fundamental rights. (Please see the document dated 26/04/2005.) Parliament felt that there should be an institutionalised link between the Council of Europe and the future Agency on Fundamental Rights, both to avoid duplication and to give the Agency all necessary input and to ensure its effectiveness. The Agency must have a strong mandate and the power to follow the development of the implementation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights within the European Union and accession countries. Parliament stressed that the Agency should also be able to cover third countries when they are involved in human rights issues affecting the Union, for example in cases where there are suspected violations of the democracy clause. It also felt that the Agency will enjoy enhanced legitimacy if its management bodies are appointed by, and answerable to, the European Parliament and report to the competent parliamentary committees.

As part of its task to promote fundamental rights, the future Agency should provide proactive support to human rights policy-making in two ways: by identifying where legislative improvements would be most welcome and by monitoring the implementation and enforcement of existing legislation.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report by Kinga GAL (EPP-ED, HU) on fundamental rights. (Please see the document dated 26/04/2005.) Parliament felt that there should be an institutionalised link between the Council of Europe and the future Agency on Fundamental Rights, both to avoid duplication and to give the Agency all necessary input and to ensure its effectiveness. The Agency must have a strong mandate and the power to follow the development of the implementation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights within the European Union and accession countries. Parliament stressed that the Agency should also be able to cover third countries when they are involved in human rights issues affecting the Union, for example in cases where there are suspected violations of the democracy clause. It also felt that the Agency will enjoy enhanced legitimacy if its management bodies are appointed by, and answerable to, the European Parliament and report to the competent parliamentary committees.

As part of its task to promote fundamental rights, the future Agency should provide proactive support to human rights policy-making in two ways: by identifying where legislative improvements would be most welcome and by monitoring the implementation and enforcement of existing legislation.

The committee adopted the own-initiative report by Kinga GÁL (EPP-ED, HU) on the role of national and European institutions, including the Fundamental Rights Agency, in promoting and protecting fundamental rights. It pointed out that the EU was establishing itself increasingly as "a political community of shared values". The EU constitutional framework could provide a new impetus for fundamental rights, which must be fully asserted and observed following the broadening of the Union 's competences. There was also a need to achieve a balance between individual freedoms and collective security in the face of terrorism.

The report said that the implementation of fundamental rights should be a goal of all European policies and that a "comprehensive and coherent" strategy was needed for this. It called for any new policy, legislative proposal and programme to be accompanied by an impact assessment with regard to respect for fundamental rights. MEPs also proposed that an interinstitutional code of conduct be drawn up to confer greater coherence and fairness on the Union 's external action in the field of democratisation and human rights. And they said that the European Parliament should use its right to bring actions before the EU Court of Justice in order to defend the rights of citizens where fundamental rights might be affected by an EU act.

The future Fundamental Rights Agency should operate as an umbrella organisation covering all human rights issues, to avoid duplication by too many different structures . It should be designed as "a multi-layered structure ("network of networks"), a specialised body with horizontal competences" contributing to the development of a fundamental rights culture in the EU. It should gather all relevant information, analyses and experience available in European and international institutions, national governments, supreme courts, NGOs, etc. The report concluded that, before new organisations are set up to defend fundamental rights, "there is a need to study the consolidation of existing organisations and the possibility of merging them". It therefore insisted that the future Gender Institute should be part of the Agency, seen as a "network of networks", should work under its own name and could be situated in the same location.

Lastly, the committee recommended that the Agency should be empowered to deliver opinions and make recommendations to Parliament, the Council and the Commission, and should draw up an annual report to be delivered to those institutions.

The representatives of the Member States meeting within the European Council in Brussels in December 2003 decided to extend the remit of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia in order to convert it into a Fundamental Rights Agency.

That decision ended a long debate in which support for setting up such an Agency was widely expressed. In June 1999, the Cologne European Council had suggested examining the need for an Agency for human rights and democracy, an idea supported by the European Parliament. The Commission fully supports the decision, which is line with the specific commitments of the Union to respect fundamental rights.

Furthermore, accession to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) will strengthen the EU's commitment to protecting human rights by introducing external judicial review of the Union's respect for fundamental rights.

The decision to set up a Fundamental Rights Agency clearly continues the policy begun with the objectives entrusted to the Centre, which already has the task of giving the Community institutions the means to fulfil their obligation to respect fundamental rights in drawing up and implementing policies and acts adopted within their fields of competence. To that end, the main task of the Centre, which at present has limited staff and resources, is to collect and analyse data on racism and xenophobia and study the causes.

At the time the December 2003 decision was adopted, the Commission had presented a proposal to recast the regulation establishing the Centre following an external assessment of the Centre. Although the proposal was withdrawn, the conclusions of the assessment remain valid as regards the Centre and will be taken into consideration when the Agency is set up.

The establishment of the Agency raises delicate questions such as the legal basis (the Commission will carefully examine the impact of the Community's limited powers in the area of fundamental rights when drafting its proposal for a regulation setting up the Agency), the financial resources it will be given and the questions linked to the definition of its field of action, its missions and tasks and the relations it might develop with the Council of Europe and other international institutions. It also raises problems concerning the adaptation of the existing structure to ensure that the Agency is effective.

The solutions to these problems should be sought with an eye to the beneficiaries of the Agency's activities: the EU institutions, the Member States and civil society in general. The Agency should be a crossroads facilitating contact between the different players in the field of fundamental rights, allowing synergies and increased dialogue between all concerned. This should benefit the holders of fundamental rights, citizens and all those within the EU.

The national institutions for the protection and promotion of human rights, set up by some Member States on the basis of UN principles (13) (14), can serve as a source of inspiration when establishing the Agency, even though care should be taken to avoid simply transposing these examples, given the specificity of the EU. According to those principles, the institutions must have consultative, informative and monitoring functions and be able in particular to formulate opinions and draw up studies and reports and education and information schemes.

Several national institutions also have quasi-judicial powers (dealing with complaints and petitions). The Agency will not have similar powers as the Treaty has already conferred them on the institutions: the Commission's role of supervising the proper application of Community law must be respected.

The tasks of the Agency, which will be set up by an instrument of secondary legislation, must not encroach on the powers conferred on the EU institutions by the Treaties. Like any other Community agency, it will be a European public-law entity, separate from the Community institutions and possessing its own legal personality. It will carry out highly specific technical, scientific or administrative tasks defined in the instrument setting it up and will have no decision-making powers. Its task will thus be to provide support for the institutions, the Member States, the members of civil society and individuals.

Lastly, as the Agency is to operate in a global environment, it must ensure that it is receptive to that environment. Dialogue with the different actors in the field of fundamental rights must be encouraged at this level too.

Public consultation: In 2005, the Commission will present a proposal for a regulation relating to the Agency, following in-depth consultations with all those involved in the development of fundamental rights in the EU.

Contributions received will be published on "Your Voice in Europe" with the authors' names, unless they wish to remain anonymous or request that their entire contribution be treated as confidential.

The dialogue on the Agency will end with a hearing, attended by the interested parties, to be held on 30 November 2004.