Common response needed

Creating a common European system of asylum, taking effective measures for the integration of the Roma population and for the protection of personal data: these are the three issues on which particular emphasis is placed in the annual report of the European Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), which examines the situation of rights in the EU in 2010. This document, which complements the monitoring that the European Commission conducts on the same question, indicates not only the continuing problems, but also positive developments and the issues that need to be tackled both at the national and EU level for he protection of basic rights.Regulations on asylum and conditions of Roma. On the question of asylum – also tackled by the EU summit of heads of state and of government on 23-24 June – the report states as follows: “In 2010 90% of irregular crossings intercepted on the frontiers of the EU took place in Greece. The Greek authorities have had considerable difficulties in guaranteeing fundamental rights to migrants in terms of conditions of detention and right to asylum”. At the beginning of 2011 the European Court of Human Rights “considered that the conditions of detention of migrants on the Greek frontier violated the Convention”. In the framework of the common European system of asylum (which ought to be completed by 2012) the member states, underlines the FRA which is based in Vienna and directed by Morten Kjaerum, “have a shared responsibility”. “This should mean ensuring adequate support, in terms of human and financial support, for the member states situated on the external frontiers of the Union”. The same emphasis also holds good for influxes of migrants arriving on the Mediterranean coasts of the EU. As far as Roma are concerned (this point too was on the order of the day at the European Council this week) the Agency maintains that they continue to live in disadvantaged conditions in various countries, and are “the minority group most subject to discrimination” in Europe. The FRA’s recent annual report examines specifically, and with often depressing data, the life of the Roma in terms of employment, education, housing and healthcare.Data protection, access to justice. The debate on the Data Retention Directive and on its compliance with fundamental rights also continued in 2010. “The directive compels the obligatory retention of data on communications (telephone and internet) by private companies. In June 2010, over a hundred organizations wrote jointly to the European Commission, asking for the repeal of EU requirements regarding data retention in favour of an alternative system. National campaigns against the directive were held in various member states, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria and Germany”. In March last year a ruling of the German Federal Constitutional Court annulled German legislation implementing the Data Retention Directive. Meanwhile, “the European Commission has expressed concern about the lack of independence of the data protection guarantor authorities in some member states, including Germany, the UK and Austria”. Apart from these three main areas of concern, the FRA in Vienna also points to other broader questions that concern the protection of individuals’ fundamental rights: they include the lack of awareness that citizens themselves have of their own rights; the widespread difficulty in gaining access to justice; the failure to report cases of discrimination, for a series of social, cultural, psychological and economic reasons; and the insufficient and un-standardized collection of data concerning the situation “in the field”.Steps forward, unresolved problems. The Agency also poses the question whether the situation of fundamental rights in the EU27 is improving or deteriorating. “At the end of 2009 – says the Report – the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU became legally binding”, thanks to the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. This, the FRA insists, “does not create new powers for the Union, but all EU laws and policies must respect the Charter”. “Fundamental rights have continued to occupy a leading place in the political agenda of the 27. For example, a new post of EU Commissioner whose portfolio includes fundamental rights has been created”. The Commission then presented its first annual report on the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The FRA places in a positive light “the integration of the dimension of fundamental rights in other sectors, such as the work of Frontex, the agency controlling EU external frontiers, as well as through legislation concerning such questions as the trafficking of human beings”, in which the emphasis is placed on the protection of the victim’s rights, especially in the case of children. Some small steps have also been taken to protect the rights of the disabled. On the other hand, the report confirms that problems still remain unresolved in terms of racial and sexual discrimination. In this latter regard, the Agency published a specific report on 23 June.