Respect for the values laid down in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) was one of the primary reasons that led to the establishment of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). While neither the Treaties nor the Regulation establishing FRA envisage an explicit role for the FRA with respect to Article 7 TEU, its assistance may be sought in this context even though the contours of such an eventual assistance remains to be clarified. By contrast, the European Commission may approach the FRA should the Commission require its assistance with respect to the application of the framework it adopted in 2014. The Council and the Parliament could similarly require the FRA's assistance. It is however submitted that a more structured dialogue and the regular provision of data and analysis, including via the FRA, would make the EU system of monitoring respect for EU values within the EU itself more operational and help prevent double standards.
This article aims to provide an insight into the legal background against which ethnic and cultural diversity is managed inside the EU. It explores how responsibilities for diversity management are distributed within the EU system, and considers the role of the overarching constitutional value of 'cultural diversity'. It is argued that the 'moments' of entry (characterized by a quasi monopoly of the Union with regard to EU citizens and a potentially increasing EU role with regard to third-country nationals), integration (characterized by a strong interactive engagement of players, Union and Member States alike) and preservation (characterized by a quasi monopoly of the Member States) form the key layers of interaction between the Member States and the EU in the policy areas relating to minority and migration issues. Each layer involves a different set of concerns and a distinct balance between national and supranational involvement, but jointly they map the growing European dimension inherent in the management of diversity.
This paper looks at the mandate of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), established in 2007, from the perspective of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which entered into force in 2009. It explores the relationship between FRA and the Charter by looking at the agency's institutional practice, its founding regulation and its Multiannual Framework, on which the Council of the European Union agrees every five years. The Florence-based European University Institute (EUI) proposed some 15 years ago an European Union (EU) human rights agenda for the new millennium. Many of the agenda's policy proposals have materialised ever since, including the establishment of a 'European Human Rights Monitoring Agency'. The Charter was not part of this set of proposals. However, this prominent bill of rights and the new Agency in Vienna are obviously closely related to each other. The author concludes that the agency, despite certain limitations in its mandate, is a 'full-Charter-body' which could unfold its potential better following a revision of its founding regulation. Such a revision should reflect that the EU Charter for Fundamental Rights has entered into force in the meantime. The author identifies two additional key elements for the need of revision: FRA's mandate should include the possibility for the agency to deliver opinions on proposed EU legislation on its own motion, and the agency should autonomously adopt its multiannual priorities.
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