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Europe
EU launches new Fundamental Rights Agency
2007-03-02
VIENNA - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso inaugurated a new EU Fundamental Rights Agency on Thursday in Vienna to advise on European Union legislation.
Fundamental rights are kinda like Human Rights, only they're more... ummm... fundmental.
But the new agency, which replaces and extends the scope of the current Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) founded in 1998, will be limited to collecting and analysing data on states’ observance and application of EU legislation. “A Europe that only monitored the most serious disease of racism and xenophobia -- the two shames that made the EUMC necessary -- would, in today’s world, be doing only half the work needed to promote and protect fundamental rights,” EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said at the inauguration ceremony.
I thought governments had that responsibility, but this is Y'urp we're discussing ...
The result of long negotiations started in 2003 by the 25 EU members and concluded in December, the agency, with its 80 to 100 staff, will have limited powers and lack the authority to file suits against states or examine individual complaints.
Little to do except enjoy lunch and look important.
The EU 25 also decided it could not intervene in matters of judicial and police cooperation between states -- arguably the area in which it could have done the most work -- following strong opposition from Britain and Germany especially.

The agency’s expertise will instead be used in implementing Union policies -- on the common market and transport for example -- where there are discrimination and racism issues, in the 27 current EU members. The EU’s new agency will work above all in the legislation preparation phase, Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik said while Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer added it will have an advisory duty so that “fundamental rights do not suffer because of tensions caused by the fight against terrorism.”
Because terrorists have fundamental rights too, you know.
Posted by:Steve White

#8  Why am I thinking '1984' and the 'Ministry of Truth'?
Posted by: CrazyFool   2007-03-02 21:19  

#7  Any coincidence that this new agency was stood up following the announcement from Airbus concerning the loss of ~10k jobs??? I think not....after all, in the EU, getting paid for not working is after all, fundamental.
Posted by: USN, ret.   2007-03-02 20:52  

#6  I guess the name Ministry of Public Opression was already taken.
Posted by: SteveS   2007-03-02 16:36  

#5  tu, unfortunately, it does accomplish something. The EUMC, founded in 1997, was not an EU institution, and its recommendations had no legal effect. Now that it's an official EU agency, the EU Commission (the EU's Politburo) can basically dictate to national governments what laws they must pass, or impose "federal" law and regulate these matters directly.

Creepy, especially where it's already more or less illegal to own guns, stockpile much of anything, or homeschool your kids.

In sum, Europe keeps driving out its smart, independent folks, while the dumb, tyrannical ones stay behind and keep doing this to their subjects. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Posted by: exJAG   2007-03-02 12:17  

#4  I did some research on this agency for a friend, and actually read some of the EUMC's "reports."

Like all EU documents, they make the Internal Revenue Code seem like light, leisurely reading. This is deliberate; 99.9% of the population would rather stick pins in their eyes than actually plow through them line by line, so no one does, and the illusion that there's nothing to worry about is perpetuated.

So just for the heck of it, I downloaded the PDF of their most recent annual report, read most of it, then ran searches for Islamophobia/ism and anti-Semitic/ism. I'm sure you could guess the ratio of hits. These people disgust me.
Posted by: exJAG   2007-03-02 11:57  

#3  The result of long negotiations started in 2003 by the 25 EU members and concluded in December, the agency, with its 80 to 100 staff, will have limited powers and lack the authority to file suits against states or examine individual complaints.

Sounds like the perfect EU organization. Good jobs at good wages, no heavy lifting, accomplishes pretty much nothing
Posted by: tu3031   2007-03-02 11:47  

#2  "We hold these rights to be unquestionable. Perhaps even unmentionable, undiscussable, and certainly, unvotable. So don't even try."
Posted by: Seafarious   2007-03-02 10:08  

#1  EUSSR making progress.
Posted by: gromgoru   2007-03-02 04:57  

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