EN    EN  COMMISSION OF THE E UROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 25.10.2004 
COM(2004) 693 final 
  
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
The Fundamental Rights Agency 
Public consultation document 
{SEC(2004)1281} 
 
EN 2   EN COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
The Fundamental Rights Agency 
Public consultation document 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 3 
2. THE AGENCY’S FIELD OF ACTION ...................................................................... 5 2.1. Remit confined to the scope of  Community (or Union) law........................................ 5 
2.2. Remit covering Article 7 of the Union Treaty ............................................................. 6 3. RIGHTS AND THEMATIC AREAS TO BE  COVERED BY THE ACTIVITIES OF 
THE AGENCY ............................................................................................................ 7 
4. GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE............................................................................................... 7 5. TASKS TO BE ENTRUS TED TO THE AGENCY.................................................... 8 
5.1. Data collection and analysis......................................................................................... 8 5.2. Opinions and views intended for the EU  institutions and the Member States............. 9 
5.3. A communications and dialogue strategy .................................................................... 9 
6. RELATIONS WITH CIVIL SOCIETY....................................................................... 9 7. SYNERGIES WITH OTHER BODIES..................................................................... 10 7.1. With the Council of Europe ....................................................................................... 10 7.2. With the national institutions for the pr omotion and protection of human rights...... 10 
7.3. With the network of independent  experts on fundamental rights .............................. 10 
8. STRUCTURE OF THE AGENCY............................................................................ 10 Annex: References .............................................................................................................. ..... 12 
 
EN 3   EN 1. INTRODUCTION 
The representatives of the Member States  meeting within the European Council in 
Brussels on 12 and 13 December 2003 decided to extend the remit of the European 
Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (1)1 in order to convert it into a 
Fundamental Rights Agency (2). 
That decision ended a long debate in which support fo r setting up such an Agency 
was widely expressed (3 ). In June 1999 the Col ogne European Council had 
suggested examining the need for an Agency for human rights and democracy (4), an idea supported by the European Parliament (5).  
The Commission fully supports the decisi on, which is line w ith the specific 
commitments of the Union to resp ect fundamental rights (6).  
Furthermore, accession to the European Convention for the Protection of Human 
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) w ill strengthen the EU's commitment to 
protecting human rights by in troducing external judicial  review of the Union’s 
respect for fundamental rights (7). 
The decision to set up a Fundamental Ri ghts Agency clearly continues the policy 
begun with the objectives entrusted to the Centre, which already has the task of 
giving the Community institutions the mean s to fulfil their obligation to respect 
fundamental rights in drawing up and implem enting policies and acts adopted within 
their fields of competence (8 ). To that end, the main task of the Centre, which at 
present has limited staff and resources (9), is to collect and an alyse data on racism 
and xenophobia and study the causes.  
At the time the December 2003 decision was adopted, the Commission had presented 
a proposal to recast the regulation establishi ng the Centre (10) following an external 
assessment of the Centre (11). Alt hough the proposal was withdrawn, the 
conclusions of the assessment remain valid as regards the Centre and will be taken 
into consideration when the Agency is set up.  
The establishment of the Agency raises delicate questions such as the legal basis (the 
Commission will carefully examine the impact of the Community's limited powers in the area of fundamental rights when drafti ng its proposal for a regulation setting up 
the Agency), the financial resources it will be given (12) and th e questions linked to 
the definition of its field of action, its missions and tasks and the relations it might 
develop with the Council of Europe and other international instituti ons. It also raises 
problems concerning the adaptation of the existing structure to ensure that the 
Agency is effective. 
The solutions to these problems should be s ought with an eye to the beneficiaries of 
the Agency’s activities: the EU institutions , the Member States and civil society in 
general. The Agency should be a crossroads  facilitating contact between the different 
players in the field of funda mental rights, allowing synergies and increased dialogue 
                                                
 
1 The annexes are in working paper SEC(2004)2181. 
 
EN 4   EN between all concerned. This should benefit th e holders of fundamental rights, citizens 
and all those within the EU. 
The national institutions for the protection and promotion of human rights, set up by 
some Member States on the basis of UN princi ples (13) (14), can serve as a source of 
inspiration when establishing the Agency, even though care should be taken to avoid 
simply transposing these examples, given the specificity of the EU. According to those principles, the institutions must have consultative, informative and monitoring functions and be able  in particular to formulate opi nions and draw up studies and 
reports and education and information schemes. 
Several national institutions also have qua si-judicial powers (dealing with complaints 
and petitions). The Agency will not have similar powers as the Treaty has already 
conferred them on the institutions: the Commission’s role of supervising the proper application of Community law must be respected. 
The tasks of the Agency, which will be set up by an instrument of secondary 
legislation, must not encroach on the power s conferred on the EU institutions by the 
Treaties. Like any other Community agenc y, it will be a European public-law entity, 
separate from the Community institutions and possessing its own legal personality. It 
will carry out highly specific technical, scient ific or administrative tasks defined in 
the instrument setting it up and will have no decision-making powers. Its task will 
thus be to provide support for the institutions, the Member States, the members of civil society and individuals. 
Lastly, as the Agency is to operate up in a global environment, it must ensure that it 
is receptive to that environment. Dialogue with the different acto rs in the field of 
fundamental rights must be enc ouraged at this level too.  
Public consultation
 
In 2005, the Commission will present a proposal for a regulation relating to the 
Agency, following in-depth consultations w ith all those involved in the development 
of fundamental rights in the EU (15). 
To that end, the Commission would like to receive contributions by 17 December 
2004, to be sent by e-mail to the following address: 
JAI-charte@cec.eu.int  
Contributions received will be publishe d on “Your Voice in Europe” with the 
authors’ names, unless they wish to remain  anonymous or request that their entire 
contribution be treated as confidential. 
The dialogue on the Agency will end with  a hearing, attended by the interested 
parties, to be held on 30 November 2004. 
 
EN 5   EN 2. THE  AGENCY’S  FIELD  OF ACTION   
Article 6(1) of the Treaty on European Un ion (TEU) lays down the principles on 
which the Community is founded. It lists them as the principles of liberty, 
democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law, and states that these principles are common to the Member States. Article 6(2) states 
that the Union respects fundamental rights, as gua ranteed in the European 
Convention on Human Rights and as they re sult from constitutional traditions 
common to the Member States and the ge neral principles of Community law. 
The Charter of Fundamental Rights rea ffirms the rights arising out of the 
constitutional traditions and the international obligations common to the Member States, the ECHR, the EU and Counc il of Europe Social Charters and the 
case law of the Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. 
It specifies that these provisions are addre ssed to the institutions, bodies and agencies 
of the Union with due regard for the principle of subsidiarity and to the 
Member States only when they are implementing Union law (16).  
Article 7 TEU (17) requires each Member St ate to respect the principles set out in 
Article 6, an obligation backed by a procedur e which gives the Union the capacity to 
act preventively in the even t of a clear threat of a se rious breach of one of the 
principles or to determine the existence of  a serious and persistent breach of one of 
these principles. The scope of Article 7 is br oad, giving the EU in stitutions the ability 
to act not only within the limited framework of the areas covered by EU law but also 
in the event of a breach in an area where the Member States act autonomously. 
Given that the Agency will be required to  monitor fundamental rights by area and not 
to prepare reports by country, how should the scope of its fi eld of action be defined? 
Should it be confined to the areas covered by Community (or Union) law or should it 
extend further to cover the scope of Article 7 TEU, setting up a procedure which 
could be used only exceptionally, according to  the gravity of the situations to which 
it would apply? 
It must be ensured that the field of acti on chosen for the Agency gives real added 
value to the protection of  fundamental rights and doe s not affect the Agency’s 
efficiency. 
2.1. Remit confined to the scope of Community (or Union) law 
By confining the Agency's remit to the scop e of Community (or Un ion) law, its role 
would be to help ensure compliance with fundamental rights of both Community law 
and policies and implementation of  the latter by Member States. 
The Agency would thus complement th e Community system of protecting and 
promoting existing fundamental rights, characterised by different elements: 
– judicial review by the Court of Justice,  which will be reinforced by external 
review by the European Court of Human Rights following accession to the ECHR; 
 
EN 6   EN – monitoring by the European Ombudsman to ensure that EU institutions respect 
the right to sound administration;  
– monitoring by the European Data-protectio n Supervisor of the protection of the 
freedoms and fundamental rights of indi viduals with regard to the processing 
of personal data by a Community institution or body;  
– policy follow-up by the European Parliament, the Council and the 
Commission, both inside a nd outside the Union, thr ough the adoption of annual 
reports with a broader remit than the Community powers relating to fundamental rights; 
– setting up, at the request of Community legislation, independent institutions 
responsible for enforcing compliance with  fundamental rights (18) in certain 
areas such as the fight against discrimi nation or the protection of personal data; 
– the part played by the Centre in co mbating racism and xenophobia through its 
research and contacts with civil society. 
Confining the Agency’s remit strictly to  the areas of Community competence would 
avoid duplicating the work of the other bodies  operating at international and national 
levels. The coordination that should be set up between the activities of the Agency 
and those of such international organisa tions as the Council of Europe and of 
national institutions for protecting and prom oting fundamental rights, would thus aim 
to develop synergies.  
The disadvantage of this option would be that the Agency could not be asked to 
collect and process the information needed  to analyse a given situation in which 
Article 7 TEU proceedings were to be taken, if the situation had no connection with Union law or extended beyond the fundamental rights field. 
2.2. Remit covering Article 7 of the Union Treaty 
As already stated, this Article gives the Un ion a different power of intervention from 
the power it already possesses to ensure that Member States respect fundamental 
rights when they implement EU law. It allows the Union to act outside the field of EU law, in areas where Member States act autonomously. 
Furthermore, the procedure is not confined to failure to respect fundamental rights, 
as Article 7 refers to all th e principles listed in Article 6(1): freedom, democracy, the 
rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. 
If the object of the Agency were to be defined as to act as an early warning 
instrument for situations covered by Artic le 7, the Agency s hould in any event be 
required only to provide institutions with the expertise that allows them to base their 
decisions on reliable and objective data. 
However, this raises the question whether such an extensive remit, covering every 
situation in a Member State, can be reconc iled with the aim of an effective Agency. 
Furthermore, this could lead to overlaps  with work carried out by the Council of 
Europe and national human rights bodies at their respective levels. There is a very 
real risk of duplication and c ontradiction if proper coordi nation is not established at 
 
EN 7   EN the outset. To avoid such situations, the Agency should engage in continuous 
dialogue in order to identify the methods  of cooperation that would place their 
expertise at its disposal. 
3. RIGHTS  AND  THEMATIC  AREAS  TO BE COVERED  BY THE  ACTIVITIES  
OF THE  AGENCY 
The Charter of Fundamental Rights, whic h was proclaimed in Nice in December 
2000, and which forms Part II of the Cons titutional Treaty with legally binding 
effect, brings together a package of rights, freedoms and principles which will, when the Constitutional Treaty enters into fo rce, bind the EU in stitutions and the 
Member States when they apply EU la w. The Commission considers that, although it 
is not legally mandatory as matters st and, it already constitutes an authentic 
expression of the fundamental rights protect ed by Community law as  a set of general 
principles. 
As such, it constitutes an essential refe rence document in the discussion on the 
definition of the Agency’s areas of intervention. 
It might be worth asking the Agency to m onitor all the fundament al rights protected 
by Community law and included in the Charte r (19). This would provide an overall 
view of the rights on which the EU is base d, which is essential to the harmonious 
development of the different categories of fundamental rights. It would also ensure 
that any hierarchisation of rights does not jeopardise their universal application or 
prevent their interdependence from being emphasised. 
A reference to the Charter would, however, gi ve the Agency an extremely broad field 
of action, especially if its ac tivities were to include resp ect for fundamental rights in 
relations between the individual and the EU institutions or States, but also in all social relations between individuals, as is cu rrently the case in respect of racism and 
xenophobia. 
Another option would be to focus the Agency’s work on thematic areas having a 
special connection with Community polic ies or the Union (immigration, asylum, 
non-discrimination, ethical questions, guarant ee of criminal proceedings, violence, 
etc.). Among these, racism and xenophobia wo uld continue to be given priority by 
the Agency. This stems from the December 2003 decision, which provides for the enlargement of the Centre’s remit. In this respect, the definition of the Agency’s aims 
must take account of the recent Europ ean Council decision on the creation of a 
European Gender Institute (20). 
Whichever option is chosen, it must ensure  a balance between a potentially vast area 
of intervention and the effectiveness of th e Agency. Some flexibility is therefore 
desirable. 
4. GEOGRAPHIC
 SCOPE 
Should the Agency’s activities be confined to the Union or should they also cover 
third countries? 
 
EN 8   EN Confining the Agency’s scope to the Un ion would clearly underline the will to 
emphasise the importance of fundamental rights in the Union and would be an 
effective means of placing responsibility on its institutions in the field of fundamental rights. It would also help in  determining the capacity and the expertise 
that the Agency will require. 
This message might be diluted if the Agency’s remit were to be extended to third 
countries; the Commission rejected this option in its Communi cation on the EU’s 
role in promoting human rights and democra tisation in third countries (21), and the 
Council shared its approach in its conclusions of 25 June 2001 (22). In addition, respect for human rights in th e Union’s foreign policy is already taken into account 
in the context of cooperation with third countries. 
5. TASKS
 TO BE ENTRUSTED  TO THE  AGENCY 
The Agency should collect data on fundament al rights to enable the Union to take 
fundamental rights fully into account when  drafting and implementing its policies. 
This would mean focusing the Agency's tasks on two areas: data collection and 
analysis and the drafting of opinions (23). 
These tasks could certainly be supplemente d by others, including maintaining regular 
dialogue with the EU institutions, the Member States and civil society in order to promote fundamental rights. 
5.1. Data collection and analysis 
The Agency’s principal tasks can be defined as the collection and analysis of 
objective, reliable and comparable data at Euro pean level. To that end, it is essential 
that it play an active part in  networking with other bodies. 
Data collection is the main objective of the Centre, pursuant to Article 2(1) of the 
1997 Regulation. 
Data should be collected in cooperation with  the Member States and the members of 
civil society dealing with fundamental ri ghts, notably NGOs, national institutes for 
fundamental rights and the Council of Eur ope. The network of independent experts 
for fundamental rights could also be an important source of information for the 
Agency. 
Several methods could be used to colle ct good-quality information. Methods should 
also be found for ensuring that the inform ation is objective, reliable and comparable. 
An active approach could be taken by requesting the Agency to set up data collection 
mechanisms. The Centre takes this appr oach with the Raxen network (24). The 
Agency could thus set up one or more networ ks to help it in this task, in addition to 
the existing network. 
On the other hand, data could be collected  passively, with the EU institutions and 
Member States being required to send data , for example in the form of regular 
reports. The data could be supplemented by optional reports fr om NGOs or other 
 
EN 9   EN members of civil society. By thus transfer ring the burden of collection, the question 
of data quality and compar ability is left intact. 
The active solution, which leaves the Agency free to seek information from a variety 
of sources, means it must sele ct it with care to ensure that it is reliable, but the 
Community and national authorities woul d be less involved in the process. 
The passive solution releases the Agency fr om the obligation to set up data search 
machinery and places the responsibility more on the EU institutions and the Member States as regards the transmission and quality of the da ta. Regular reports 
would also allow more regular monitoring of the situation as regards fundamental 
rights. 
5.2. Opinions and views intended for the EU institutions and the Member States 
Data collection and analysis should be ta rgeted on the drafting of opinions for the 
institutions and the Member States, in which the Agency would set out its analyses. 
Executing this task could take the form of published reports or other means of 
communication.  
5.3. A communications and dialogue strategy 
Dissemination of the work carried out by the Agency and the dialogue with the 
various members of civil society shoul d form part of a clearly defined 
communications strategy that meets the needs of its customers and thus creates the conditions for coordinating a fundamental  rights awareness and education policy 
with what is being done nationa lly and by the Council of Europe. 
The communications strategy would notably  involve the publication of reviews, 
information bulletins and studies, the orga nisation of a website and a database. It 
would be a major tool in the dialogue betw een the Agency and the different actors in 
the field of fundamental rights, notably th e NGOs (25), and in cooperation with the 
Council of Europe and the national human rights bodies. 
6. RELATIONS
 WITH  CIVIL  SOCIETY 
The Agency should establish relations with  NGOs, the social partners, universities 
and other partners involved in fundamenta l rights, as well as with the specialist 
bodies dealing with the protection of fundame ntal rights in the fi eld of personal data 
and privacy. 
It would be important to ask it to maintain  regular contact with those parties whose 
expertise will make a valuable  contribution to its work. 
The contacts could take the form of  a network set up among the partners. 
The activities of the Agency must not, how ever, compromise the independence of the 
partners. 
 
EN 10   EN 7. SYNERGIES  WITH  OTHER  BODIES 
7.1. With the Council of Europe 
Close cooperation must be established, like that between the Centre and the 
European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) (27), which provides 
for the participation of the Council of Europe (26). 
Specific forms of cooperation with the Counc il of Europe will be defined bilaterally. 
It would also be desirable for the Agen cy to develop close relations with, for 
instance, the Commissioner for Human Rights to  ensure that their respective areas of 
competence complement each other. 
7.2. With the national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights 
Special attention should be paid to the links which the Agency could develop with 
national bodies, notably with a view to de termining respective work programmes. A 
network could be set up between the Agency and the national agencies or equivalent 
bodies in the Member States. 
7.3. With the network of independent experts on fundamental rights 
It is necessary to identify the synergies which the Agency could develop with the 
network of independent experts on fundame ntal rights, set up by the Commission at 
the request of the European Parliament, and to determin e whether retaining the two 
structures will give real added value to the promotion and protection of fundamental 
rights. 
8. STRUCTURE  OF THE  AGENCY 
In order to carry out its tasks objecti vely, the Agency must be independent. 
It must be independent of all those w ith whom it will come into contact: the 
Commission, European Parliament, Council,  Member States and civil society. 
In exchange for the independence of the Agen cy in the pursuit of the tasks it will be 
given, an appropriate system of responsibil ity and liability (pol itical, financial, 
administrative, and legal) will also have to be clearly established. 
At the same time, the efficiency of the Agen cy, which is intended to be a lightweight 
structure in terms of staff and budget, and its transparency and representativeness 
must not be compromised. 
These points must be considered and conclu sions drawn with rega rd to the structure 
of the Agency and the composition of the management bodies. 
A measure of the importance attributed to the Agency would be if representatives 
appointed by the Commission, the European Parliament, the Member States and the 
Council of Europe were to partic ipate in its management bodies. 
To ensure that it is effective, the Agency’s management bodies must: 
 
EN 11   EN – have the necessary expertise to define the Agency’s work programme and also 
administer it; 
– optimise the influence of the Agency on decision-makers in the Member States 
and the EU institutions. It might be advi sable to consider adding a scientific 
committee to the structures of the Centre (Management Board, Executive Board, Director) (28). 
 
EN 12   EN Annex: References  
(1) Created by Council Regulation (EC) n° 1035/97 of 2 June 1997 establishing a 
European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, OJ L 151 of 10 June 1997, 
p. 11. The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia was created in 
June 1997. The primary role of the Monito ring Centre consists of collecting and 
analysing data on racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism, as well as studying the causes of these phenomena, in order to help  the Community and the Member States to 
conceive and to target their policies. The Monitoring Centre, which is based in Vienna, 
employs approximately 30 people and has an operational budget amounting in 2003 to €6.5 million.  
(2) For the purposes of this text, the expressi ons “fundamental rights” and “human rights” 
carry the same meaning.  
(3) In 2000, the wise mens’ report, (report of Messrs Martti Ahtisaari, Jochen Frowein and 
Marcelino Oreja, analysing “the commitme nt of the Austrian Government to the 
common European values, in particular relating to the rights of minorities, refugees and immigrants”, presented on 8 Septembe r 2000 in Paris) recommended the creation 
of an EU Agency on Human Rights in order to contribute to the establishment “of a 
mechanism within the EU to monitor and evaluate the commitment and performance 
of individual Member States with re spect to common European values”.  
(4) Item 46 of the conclusions.  
(5) See, in particular, the European Parliame nt resolution on the annual report on respect 
for human rights in the European Uni on, of 16 March 2000, § 94 (A5-0050/2000), the 
European Parliament resolution on Internat ional Human Rights and European Union 
Human Rights Policy, of 16 Marc h 2000, § 10 (A5-0060/2000), the European 
Parliament resolution on the human rights  situation in the Eu ropean Union, of 15 
January 2003, § 8 (A5-0451/2002), and the European Parliament resolution on the 
Communication from the Commission to the Council and the Europ ean parliament on 
the European Union's role in promoting human rights and democratisation in third 
countries, of 25</Titre> Ap ril 2002, §§ 25 – 28 (A5-0084/2002).  
(6) The explicit engagement of the Union to respect fundamental rights results from 
Article 6 of the Treaty on European Uni on. The Charter of Fundamental Rights “The 
Charter”, declared in Nice in December 2000 and published OJ C 364 of 18 December 
2000, p. 1, has been included in part II of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for 
Europe, with binding legal force. It c onstitutes an authentic expression of the 
fundamental rights protected by th e Community legal framework.  
(7) To date, the European Union is not a me mber of the ECHR, although the legal and 
political consequences of such an adhesi on have been discussed and examined for 
years.   The question was in particular raised with  respect to the Charter of Fundamental 
Rights. The importance of keeping a balan ce between this document and the ECHR 
led to the insertion of a provi sion in Article 52 (3) of the Ch arter, stating that “Insofar 
as this Charter contains rights whic h correspond to rights guaranteed by the 
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the 
 
EN 13   EN meaning and scope of those rights shall be the same as those laid down by the said 
Convention. This provision shall not prevent Union law from providing more 
extensive protection”.   Article I-9 (2) of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe stipulates that the 
Union shall accede to the European Conven tion for the Protection of Human Rights 
and Fundamental Freedoms. Such accession sh all not affect the Union's competences 
as defined in the Constitution. 
(8) See recital 2 of regulation 1035/97.  
(9) Currently, thirty people work at the Mon itoring Centre; in 2003 the budget was €6.5 
million.  
(10) Communication from the Comm ission to the Council, the European Parliament, the 
European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, on the activities of the European Monitoring Ce ntre on Racism and Xenophobia, together 
with proposals to recast Council Regulation (EC) 1035/97, a proposal for a Council 
regulation on the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (Recast 
version) COM (2003) 483 final version.  
(11) The integral report submitted by the assessors may be consulted on the Internet at the 
following address:   http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_socia l/fundamental_rights/ pdf/origin/eumc_ev
al2002_fr.pdf  
(12) The Commission commits to go ahead with its regulation proposal after an ex-ante 
evaluation so as to ensure the principle of sound financial management.  
(13) In the annex, an opinion has been drawn up by the Network of independent experts on 
fundamental rights concerning the role of national institutions fo r the protection of 
human rights in the member states of the European Union.  
(14) The Council of Europe also formulated prin ciples on the establishment of independent 
national human rights institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (Recommendation No. R (97) 14 of 30 September 1997).  
(15) The debate has already been complement ed by a working paper of the European 
Parliament presented by Mrs Swiebel (EP <NoPE>339.635) and by contributions of 
Amnesty International, Social Platform and of the European Association for the 
Protection of Human Rights (FIDH-AE).  
(16) Article 51 of the Charter stipulates that it neither extends the scope of the law of the 
Union beyond the competences of the Union, nor creates any new competence or task 
for the Union.  
(17) This article was the subject of a Communi cation from the Commission to the Council 
and the European Parliament on Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union - Respect 
for and promotion of the values on which the Union is based, COM (2003) 606 final 
of 15.10.2003.  
 
EN 14   EN (18) In particular the case of Directive 46/ 95 on data protection which envisages the 
creation by the Member States of supervisor y authorities, and of Directive 2000/43/EC 
on equal treatment between persons, irrespect ive of racial or ethnic origin, which 
provides for the designation by the Member St ates of bodies responsible for upholding 
this equality.  
(19) The provisions of the Charter have a clear basis for interp retation in the "Explanations 
relating to the complete text of the Charter", a document drawn up under the 
responsibility of the Praesid ium of the Convention which drafted the Charter, not 
having any legal effect and intended simply  for clarifying the pr ovisions of this 
document. Although these explanations do not  have in itself any legal effect, they 
constitute a valuable interpretation tool intended to clarify the provisions of the Charter. 
(20) The conclusion 43 of the presid ency of the European Council  of Brussels (17 and 18 
June 2004) pointing out the aims of equality  stated in the Lisbon programme and in 
the light of the political ag reement reached within the Council, expresses its support 
for the creation of a European Institute fo r equality between men and women and calls 
on the Commission to submit it a proposal in this direction. 
(21) COM (2001) 252 final of 8 May 2001, item 5. Indeed, the Commission considered 
itself to have complete sources of info rmation and advice on the matter and did not 
consider it convenient to create an impleme ntation agency for the development of the 
projects with regard to the third countries.  
(22) "The Council underlines the im portance of enhancing co-ord ination and co-operation 
between Community actions and the CFSP in  the promotion and protection of human 
rights and efforts to strengthen democr acy. Hence, the Council recalls that the 
Community's actions should be consistent with the European Union’s action as a 
whole, including the CFSP. The Council sh ares the Commission's opinion that these 
objectives should be achieved  without establishing new st ructures", 2362nd session of 
the Council on – general Affairs. 
(23) Opinions restrict themselves to expressing the opinion of the entity that it emits and 
are not binding opposite the entity to which they address themselves.  
(24) See Article 2 (2) point h) of  the regulation n° 1035/97.  
(25) Strengthening the dialogue with the civil so ciety, in particular with the NGOs, is an 
objective that the Commission stated on se veral occasions, in particular, in the 
Communication on Article 7 EUT, alr eady mentioned (cf. its item 2.4).  
(26) The Council of Europe has several instrume nts and mechanisms as regards protection 
of human rights, the principal of which are: the European Convention of Human 
rights, the European social Charter, Eu ropean Convention for the Prevention of 
Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatme nt or Punishment, the Convention on 
Human rights and biomedicine,  the Convention for the Prot ection of Individuals with 
regard to Automatic Processing of Pers onal Data, the Framework Convention for the 
Protection of Nationa l Minorities, the European Ch arter for Regional or Minority 
Languages and the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance. 
 
EN 15   EN (27) Council decision of 21 December 1998 relatin g to the conclusion of an Agreement 
between the European Community and th e Council of Europe for the purpose of 
establishing, in accordance with Article 7( 3) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1035/97 
of 2 June 1997 establishing a European  Monitoring Centre on Racism and 
Xenophobia, close cooperation between the Ce ntre and the Council of Europe, OJ L 
44 of the 18. 2.1999, p. 33.  
(28) See Article 10 of the Council Regulation (EEC) No 302/93 of 8 February 1993 on the 
establishment of a European Monitoring Ce ntre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, OJ L 
36, 12.02.1993, p. 1