News

Looking back at 2012 we consider our main achievements in the area of fundamental rights:

• We adopted a position towards EU actions against all forms of bias violence for long-term efficient policy strategies against the consequences of the economic crises where victims have fewer resources to be safe, to flee and to protect themselves. We delivered our key messages in the Parliament in June (see related published article: ENAR and EurActiv). We started our work towards a proposal on migration and social inclusion, fundamental rights and access to services and employment. We consulted our members, had an exchange with Ms. Pyke, Director Migration and Borders (DG Home Affairs), Ms. Nygård, Programme Manager at FRA and the European Network of Migrant Women and participated in relevant meetings such as the European Integration Forum, EESC meetings etc.

• We successfully called on the Commission and the Presidency to dedicate the Equality Summit 2012 to investing in equality as a way of supporting the Europe 2020 Strategy’s headline targets on education, employment and social inclusion. Our proposal was taken on board and we participated as a key speaker and several of our members spoke. We were also represented in the Commission’s Steering Group on Diversity Management at work in the EU.

• We supported the Fundamental Rights Agency by calling on the Council Working Party to give the Agency a clear mandate for 2013-2017 to work on strengthening social rights to enable the poorest people in the EU to access their fundamental rights. We had our yearly meeting with the Director: Mr Kjaerum and we participated in FRA’s Platform meeting and it’s Fundamental Rights Conference 2012.

• We organized trainings on the Charter of Fundamental Rights by inviting the Commission to present their annual report on Fundamental Rights. We did a roundtable under the Chatham House Rules together with the Open Society Foundation on the effective implementation of the Charter with representatives from the Commission, the Parliament, the Council, Member States, NGOs and academics. We also had training on Human Rights Defenders in Europe by Mr. Forest from Frontline Defenders as well as training on Gender Mainstreaming with Prof. Ms. Wallby.

• We called on the LIBE Committee to vote for a comprehensive Fundamental Rights report that recognizes social, economic and cultural rights as a pre-requisite to the enjoyment of fundamental rights for all. We continued to call for the Council and the Presidency to move ahead on the Equal treatment Directive in order to reach the same legal protection as the Race Equality Directive. We spoke at a LIBE Committee hearing and we delivered our message to the EMPL Committee.

A look forward to 2013

During 2013 we will continue to call on the EU to put equality first in order to reach the objectives of Europe 2020 Strategy and to achieve a sustainable, economic and inclusive growth, this we will do by collecting and presenting evidence of the benefits of equality and the consequences of inequality in our messages to the Council and the Commission and by dedicating our next issue of ENGAGE to the topic. We will develop a position on migration supporting our standpoint that policies should be based on fundamental human rights protection of people living in the EU irrespective of nationality and citizenship. We will also continue monitoring the Equal treatment Directive (blocked in the Council) and work in cooperation with other stakeholders such as the Fundamental Rights Agency, the European Network of Equality Bodies and Eurofound.