EU overweegt nieuw agentschap voor mensenrechten (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European parliament has approved a plan to set up a new EU Fundamental Rights agency amid concerns about its duplication with other bodies.

MEPs voted overwhelmingly on Thursday (26 May) in favour of a report by Kinga Gál, Hungarian centre-right deputy, who called for a "strong, independent, effective and cost-effective agency".

But Ms Gál admits she has seen doubts expressed by other transnational human rights bodies about the need to set up this new agency.

"There was a concern - mainly expressed by the officials at the Council of Europe - about the possible duplication of the tasks carried out by yet another office with a similar agenda", she said.

However, an officer at the Council of Europe (CoE) told the EUobserver, the duplication itself is not the main problem.

"It is true that the EU sometimes decides to set up new instruments before looking at what has been available for its use. But in some areas, there is never enough effort, so we can bring in more, but we should ensure coherence in our activities," he said.

He explained the EU should be careful about the mandate of the agency. If it only applies to its member states, it should make clear some messages by the CoE bodies would not be overlooked, referring to example of racism in some West European countries.

On the other hand, if the agency is to monitor and preach about the human rights record of the other European countries - possibly CoE members - it should also coordinate its activities, so that the two do not send out contradicting messages, say on Chechnya, Russia or Ukraine.

Less weight without the constitution

The agency has been promoted by the European Commission as a body which would help to monitor and promote protection of human rights, mainly with the prospects of Charter of Fundamental Rights becoming a legally binding document, included in the EU constitution.

However, if pre-referendum sentiments in France and the Netherlands turn into reality and the treaty is killed off, the agency itself will lose some of its political significance, according to a spokesman for the justice commissioner.

"The proposal to set up the agency is based on the current treaty so it will go ahead in any case. But it is true that with the greater legal and political role of the Charter approved as part of the constitution, it would have more prominence," said Friso Roscam Abbing.

Hungarian MEP Kinga Gál argues that without the new treaty, it would be even more important to set up the agency.

She would like to see it as a "network of the networks" of organisations with a similar agenda at place in Europe, coordinating even the activities of the other newly proposed European Gender Institute.

"Its main focus could be on issues such as individual rights in face of measures for the collective security, or the minority issues which have come under the spotlight mainly after the enlargement," she told this news-site.

The European Commission will present its legislative proposal on the political and geographical scope and tasks of the new body by the end of June.

The agency is expected to start operating in Vienna, incorporating the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, at the beginning of 2007.