Frattini issues wish-list for rights agency

European Voice, 19-25 May 2005

The European Commission will next week outline the tasks to be carried out by the EU agency on fundamental rights.

The Vienna-based agency will expand on the work already undertaken by the seven-yer old Eu Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.

Its purpose will be to analyse and collect data on how each EU member state adheres to the basic rights enshrined in the EU?s treaties.

MEPs have urged that the agency should at least cover countries which have been recognise as candidates for EU membership and those involved in the European Neighbourhood Programme. The latter include Ukraine, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Moldova and Morocco.

But Franco Frattini, the commissioner for justice, freedom and security, told the European Voice that he believes the agency?s remit should initially be confirmed to the EU?s members states.

?We should establish a well-functioning agency within the EU and then we will deal with the candidate countries,? Frattini said.

The proposal to be adopted by the 25 commissioners next Wednesday (25 May) will also state how the agency can complement the work of other bodies involved in human rights monitoring, such as the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

In a report for the European Parliament?s civil liberties committee, Hungarian centre-right MEP Kinga Gal; calls for an ?institutionalised link? between the Council of Europe and the agency so that overlap can be avoided.

 British Labour MEP Claude Moraes said that the agency should be empowered t analyse the situations of the Roma gypsy communities in Romania and Bulagaria both before and after they join the Union.

He urged too that its scope should include EU candidate country Turkey.

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