On Wednesday 6 June, the European Commission published its annual report on the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU in 2017, which concludes overall that the structures and tools in place work well.
“We saw some encouraging developments in 2017, for instance when it comes to tackling racism other illegal hate speech online (…). But we have faced also important challenges in 2017, with the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and the work of civil society organisations under threat in parts of our Union”, summed up the European Commissioner for Justice, Vera Jourova.
The report particularly stresses the need to give democracy support a second wind. The Commission lists the initiatives launched in 2017 to improve the promotion of social rights, the fight against racism, both online and off-line, tackle discrimination against women, the protection of migrant children and improve access to justice.
The Commission also announced that the 2018 edition of its annual fundamental rights colloquium, to be held on 26 and 27 November, will be given over to democracy in the EU – an opportunity to reaffirm the fundamental values in the run-up to the European elections, it explains.
FRA scoreboard. In a report published the same day, the Fundamental Rights Agency of the EU (FRA) takes stock of things a little less optimistically. It considers that 2017 saw both progress and regression in the protection of the fundamental rights.
In particular, it notes that the role and use of the Charter at national level has been quite mixed, pointing out that there does not appear to have been any significant improvement in its use in legal or legislative procedures and that it has been difficult to identify public policies aiming to promote it.
The report also lays emphasis on the slow but steady move towards a “rights-based approach to ageing”. The fundamental rights “do not carry an expiry date”, stresses the FRA, which calls on the European institutions to support equal treatment for older people.
Links to the reports: https://bit.ly/2JiOXBt and https://bit.ly/2xMLtC9 . (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)