The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
(usually known in English as the Fundamental Rights Agency
, FRA) is a Vienna
-based agency of the European Union
inaugurated on 1 March 2007. It was established by Council Regulation
(EC) No 168/2007 of 15 February 2007 as the successor to the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia
The FRA is an EU body tasked with "collecting and analysing data on fundamental rights
with reference to, in principle, all rights listed in the Charter
"; however, it is intended to focus particularly on "the thematic areas within the scope of EU law". This is an expansion upon the scope of the former EUMC, which was restricted to issues of racism and xenophobia.
Like the EUMC, the FRA's primary methods of operation are investigation, reports, provision of expert assistance to EU bodies
, member states
, and EU candidate countries and potential candidate countries
, and the education of the public. The FRA is not intended to intervene in individual cases but rather to investigate broad issues and trends.
The European Parliament
(EP) has repeatedly attempted to use the FRA in order to put pressure on Member States' governments, especially with a view to promote LGBT rights.One noteworthy example was a Resolution adopted in September 2009, in which the EP condemned a "Law on the Protection of Minors", which was then under discussion in Lithuania, as "homophobic"... Read More