European Union launches fundamental rights agency

The protection of fundamental rights for all residing in the EU is the goal of the European Fundamental Rights Agency (EFRA) launched today in Vienna, Austria. EFRA previously functioned as the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC). The agency's core competence will remain the same: data and information collection on the abuse of fundamental rights in the Union. This monitoring function has become all the more important since the introduction of formalized anti-discrimination legislation, through Article 13 of the EU Treaty. Robust anti-discrimination legislation is a part of the legal foundation of functional integration policy and crucial toward allowing regularized migrants equal accesss to employment, housing and social services. The creation and remit (i.e. limited statute of EFRA) has been the subject of criticism, though in absence of the European Constitution, that would have firmly anchored the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the EFRA might prove to be as good as the European Union can get given the current political circumstances. Member States had enough problems transposing the EU anti-discrimination Directive into national law, although this goal has finally been achieved. We will monitor the effectiveness of EFRA in helping migrants integrate into European society closely on the pages of this blog.