The 2025 Annual Report of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), published on Tuesday 10 June, analyses the implementation and application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its adoption.
The aim is to take stock of how the Charter is used by EU institutions, Member States and national courts, and to identify the disparities in the way it is incorporated into the legal and administrative systems of each EU country.
In 2024, 15 Member States used the Charter in their national law, mainly through judicial decisions.
More than 350 judgements handed down in 2024 referred to the Charter throughout the EU, more than half of which related to Articles 21, on non-discrimination, 47, on the right to an effective remedy, and 8, on the protection of personal data.
However, the use of this text as a reference is not the same everywhere. In France, Spain and Italy, the Charter is used less frequently by national courts than in northern European countries or in European courts.
Within the EU institutions, the Charter helps to guide policy development.
In 2024, the European Commission carried out 176 assessments of compliance with the Charter in the context of legislative proposals or regulatory revisions.
These assessments have focused in particular on sensitive areas in terms of fundamental rights, such as migration, digital technology, social protection, and the environment.
Nevertheless, the report notes that the quality and depth of these assessments remain variable.
For European funds, the document reports an improvement in the way the obligations set out in the Charter are taken into account.
15 funding programmes co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) or the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) were adjusted in 2024 to ensure their compliance with Article 23, which deals with equality between women and men, and Article 34, which deals with security and social assistance.
In four cases, mitigation procedures were implemented by the Commission because of the risk of incompatibility with the Charter.
Moreover, 52% of European citizens say they have heard of the Charter, according to Eurobarometer data.
This rate also varies between Member States: from 28% in Bulgaria to 71% in the Netherlands.
The report also points out that 18 Member States have incorporated modules relating to the Charter into the initial or ongoing training of judges, prosecutors or public officials, although this has not been standardised.
Lastly, the FRA calls for the national mechanisms for applying the Charter to be strengthened, in particular through the appointment of national contact points, the systematic analysis of the impact on fundamental rights of draft legislation, and the widespread use of the Charter in case law.
This year, several Member States are expected to publish national strategies on fundamental rights, explicitly using the Charter as a reference framework.
The report: https://aeur.eu/f/h8x (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)