The FRA will become fully operational in 2008. At the moment, the European Commission is drafting the multi-Annual Framework programme and will appoint the Director.
The new agency is not foreseen to overlap with the work of the Council of Europe who is responsible for the European Convention on Human Rights and the corresponding court. However, it is hoped that synergies will develop.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights is the point of reference for the mandate of the Agency.
Role and tasks
1. The role of the new agency will be that of an independent centre of expertise on fundamental rights issues, which will collect, record, analyse and disseminate relevant objective, reliable and comparable information and data; develop methods to improve the quality of data; and carry out or encourage scientific research and surveys.
2. It is expected that the agency will also formulate and publish opinions for the EU and Member States when implementing Community legislation. They will also publish annual reports.
3. With regard to the cooperation with civil society, the agency intends to better promote dialogue with civil society organisations. To this end, a Platform is to be set up.
4. The FRA will NOT examine individual complaints, monitor the situation of human rights in Member States and will not question whether a Member States has failed to fulfil its obligations under the Treaty.
This means that the FRA has clearly limited powers: it will be more of an EU expert in fundamental rights, rather than a watchdog for fundamental rights.
Cooperation with civil society: the Fundamental Rights Platform
Cooperation between the FRA and civil society will be organised through the Fundamental Rights Platform, which is a mechanism for exchange of information, under the authority of the Director.
According to the regulation establishing the FRA, the Fundamental Rights Platform is composed of non-governmental organisations dealing with human rights, trade unions and employer’s organisations, relevant social and professional organisations, churches, religious, philosophical and non-confessional organisations, universities and other qualified experts of European and international bodies and organisations.
Amongst others, the FRA shall call upon the Fundamental Rights Platform to:
make suggestions to the Management Board of the FRA on the Annual Work Programme;
give feedback and suggest follow-up to the Management Board of the FRA on the annual report provided;
communicate outcomes and recommendations of conferences, seminars and meetings relevant to the work of the Agency to the Director and the Scientific Committee.
The right to health and the right to access to health
It will be interesting to see how this newly proposed agency will deal with the right of access to healthcare which is guaranteed by Article 35 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union:
‘Everyone has the right of access to preventive health care and the right to benefit from medical treatment under the conditions established by national laws and practices. A high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Union policies and activities.’
European Commission briefing on the EU Fundamental Rights Agency
EPHA briefing note on Human rights and fundamental rights from an EU perspective
Health rights explored within a conference on fundamental rights
