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Europaudvalget 2004
KOM (2004) 0693
Offentligt

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

Brussels, 25.10.2004

COM(2004) 693 final

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION

The Fundamental Rights Agency

Public consultation document

{SEC(2004)1281}

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COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION

The Fundamental Rights Agency

Public consultation document

TABLE OF CONTENTS

2.1.

2.2.

5.1.

5.2.

5.3.

7.1.

7.2.

7.3.

INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 3

THE AGENCY’S FIELD OF ACTION ...................................................................... 5

Remit confined to the scope of Community (or Union) law........................................ 5

Remit covering Article 7 of the Union Treaty ............................................................. 6

RIGHTS AND THEMATIC AREAS TO BE COVERED BY THE ACTIVITIES OF

THE AGENCY ............................................................................................................ 7

GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE............................................................................................... 7

TASKS TO BE ENTRUSTED TO THE AGENCY.................................................... 8

Data collection and analysis......................................................................................... 8

Opinions and views intended for the EU institutions and the Member States............. 9

A communications and dialogue strategy .................................................................... 9

RELATIONS WITH CIVIL SOCIETY....................................................................... 9

SYNERGIES WITH OTHER BODIES..................................................................... 10

With the Council of Europe ....................................................................................... 10

With the national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights...... 10

With the network of independent experts on fundamental rights .............................. 10

STRUCTURE OF THE AGENCY............................................................................ 10

Annex: References ................................................................................................................... 12

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INTRODUCTION

The representatives of the Member States meeting within the European Council in

Brussels on 12 and 13 December 2003 decided to extend the remit of the European

Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (1)

in order to convert it into a

Fundamental Rights Agency (2).

That decision ended a long debate in which support for setting up such an Agency

was widely expressed (3). In June 1999 the Cologne European Council had

suggested examining the need for an Agency for human rights and democracy (4), an

idea supported by the European Parliament (5).

The Commission fully supports the decision, which is line with the specific

commitments of the Union to respect fundamental rights (6).

Furthermore, accession to the European Convention for the Protection of Human

Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) will strengthen the EU's commitment to

protecting human rights by introducing external judicial review of the Union’s

respect for fundamental rights (7).

The decision to set up a Fundamental Rights Agency clearly continues the policy

begun with the objectives entrusted to the Centre, which already has the task of

giving the Community institutions the means to fulfil their obligation to respect

fundamental rights in drawing up and implementing policies and acts adopted within

their fields of competence (8). To that end, the main task of the Centre, which at

present has limited staff and resources (9), is to collect and analyse data on racism

and xenophobia and study the causes.

At the time the December 2003 decision was adopted, the Commission had presented

a proposal to recast the regulation establishing the Centre (10) following an external

assessment of the Centre (11). Although the proposal was withdrawn, the

conclusions of the assessment remain valid as regards the Centre and will be taken

into consideration when the Agency is set up.

The establishment of the Agency raises delicate questions such as the legal basis (the

Commission will carefully examine the impact of the Community's limited powers in

the area of fundamental rights when drafting its proposal for a regulation setting up

the Agency), the financial resources it will be given (12) and the questions linked to

the definition of its field of action, its missions and tasks and the relations it might

develop with the Council of Europe and other international institutions. It also raises

problems concerning the adaptation of the existing structure to ensure that the

Agency is effective.

The solutions to these problems should be sought with an eye to the beneficiaries of

the Agency’s activities: the EU institutions, the Member States and civil society in

general. The Agency should be a crossroads facilitating contact between the different

players in the field of fundamental rights, allowing synergies and increased dialogue

The annexes are in working paper SEC(2004)2181.

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between all concerned. This should benefit the holders of fundamental rights, citizens

and all those within the EU.

The national institutions for the protection and promotion of human rights, set up by

some Member States on the basis of UN principles (13) (14), can serve as a source of

inspiration when establishing the Agency, even though care should be taken to avoid

simply transposing these examples, given the specificity of the EU. According to

those principles, the institutions must have consultative, informative and monitoring

functions and be able in particular to formulate opinions and draw up studies and

reports and education and information schemes.

Several national institutions also have quasi-judicial powers (dealing with complaints

and petitions). The Agency will not have similar powers as the Treaty has already

conferred them on the institutions: the Commission’s role of supervising the proper

application of Community law must be respected.

The tasks of the Agency, which will be set up by an instrument of secondary

legislation, must not encroach on the powers conferred on the EU institutions by the

Treaties. Like any other Community agency, it will be a European public-law entity,

separate from the Community institutions and possessing its own legal personality. It

will carry out highly specific technical, scientific or administrative tasks defined in

the instrument setting it up and will have no decision-making powers. Its task will

thus be to provide support for the institutions, the Member States, the members of

civil society and individuals.

Lastly, as the Agency is to operate up in a global environment, it must ensure that it

is receptive to that environment. Dialogue with the different actors in the field of

fundamental rights must be encouraged at this level too.

Public consultation

In 2005, the Commission will present a proposal for a regulation relating to the

Agency, following in-depth consultations with all those involved in the development

of fundamental rights in the EU (15).

To that end, the Commission would like to receive contributions by 17 December

2004, to be sent by e-mail to the following address:

[email protected]

Contributions received will be published on “Your Voice in Europe” with the

authors’ names, unless they wish to remain anonymous or request that their entire

contribution be treated as confidential.

The dialogue on the Agency will end with a hearing, attended by the interested

parties, to be held on 30 November 2004.

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THE AGENCY’S FIELD OF ACTION

Article 6(1) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) lays down the principles on

which the Community is founded. It lists them as the principles of liberty,

democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law,

and states that these principles are common to the Member States. Article 6(2) states

that the Union respects fundamental rights, as guaranteed in the European

Convention on Human Rights and as they result from constitutional traditions

common to the Member States and the general principles of Community law.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights reaffirms the rights arising out of the

constitutional traditions and the international obligations common to the

Member States, the ECHR, the EU and Council of Europe Social Charters and the

case law of the Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights.

It specifies that these provisions are addressed to the institutions, bodies and agencies

of the Union with due regard for the principle of subsidiarity and to the

Member States only when they are implementing Union law (16).

Article 7 TEU (17) requires each Member State to respect the principles set out in

Article 6, an obligation backed by a procedure which gives the Union the capacity to

act preventively in the event of a clear threat of a serious breach of one of the

principles or to determine the existence of a serious and persistent breach of one of

these principles. The scope of Article 7 is broad, giving the EU institutions the ability

to act not only within the limited framework of the areas covered by EU law but also

in the event of a breach in an area where the Member States act autonomously.

Given that the Agency will be required to monitor fundamental rights by area and not

to prepare reports by country, how should the scope of its field of action be defined?

Should it be confined to the areas covered by Community (or Union) law or should it

extend further to cover the scope of Article 7 TEU, setting up a procedure which

could be used only exceptionally, according to the gravity of the situations to which

it would apply?

It must be ensured that the field of action chosen for the Agency gives real added

value to the protection of fundamental rights and does not affect the Agency’s

efficiency.

2.1.

Remit confined to the scope of Community (or Union) law

By confining the Agency's remit to the scope of Community (or Union) law, its role

would be to help ensure compliance with fundamental rights of both Community law

and policies and implementation of the latter by Member States.

The Agency would thus complement the Community system of protecting and

promoting existing fundamental rights, characterised by different elements:

–

judicial review by the Court of Justice, which will be reinforced by external

review by the European Court of Human Rights following accession to the

ECHR;

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–

monitoring by the European Ombudsman to ensure that EU institutions respect

the right to sound administration;

monitoring by the European Data-protection Supervisor of the protection of the

freedoms and fundamental rights of individuals with regard to the processing

of personal data by a Community institution or body;

policy follow-up by the European Parliament, the Council and the

Commission, both inside and outside the Union, through the adoption of annual

reports with a broader remit than the Community powers relating to

fundamental rights;

setting up, at the request of Community legislation, independent institutions

responsible for enforcing compliance with fundamental rights (18) in certain

areas such as the fight against discrimination or the protection of personal data;

the part played by the Centre in combating racism and xenophobia through its

research and contacts with civil society.

–

Confining the Agency’s remit strictly to the areas of Community competence would

avoid duplicating the work of the other bodies operating at international and national

levels. The coordination that should be set up between the activities of the Agency

and those of such international organisations as the Council of Europe and of

national institutions for protecting and promoting fundamental rights, would thus aim

to develop synergies.

The disadvantage of this option would be that the Agency could not be asked to

collect and process the information needed to analyse a given situation in which

Article 7 TEU proceedings were to be taken, if the situation had no connection with

Union law or extended beyond the fundamental rights field.

2.2.

Remit covering Article 7 of the Union Treaty

As already stated, this Article gives the Union a different power of intervention from

the power it already possesses to ensure that Member States respect fundamental

rights when they implement EU law. It allows the Union to act outside the field of

EU law, in areas where Member States act autonomously.

Furthermore, the procedure is not confined to failure to respect fundamental rights,

as Article 7 refers to all the principles listed in Article 6(1): freedom, democracy, the

rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

If the object of the Agency were to be defined as to act as an early warning

instrument for situations covered by Article 7, the Agency should in any event be

required only to provide institutions with the expertise that allows them to base their

decisions on reliable and objective data.

However, this raises the question whether such an extensive remit, covering every

situation in a Member State, can be reconciled with the aim of an effective Agency.

Furthermore, this could lead to overlaps with work carried out by the Council of

Europe and national human rights bodies at their respective levels. There is a very

real risk of duplication and contradiction if proper coordination is not established at

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the outset. To avoid such situations, the Agency should engage in continuous

dialogue in order to identify the methods of cooperation that would place their

expertise at its disposal.

RIGHTS AND THEMATIC AREAS TO BE COVERED BY THE ACTIVITIES

OF THE AGENCY

The Charter of Fundamental Rights, which was proclaimed in Nice in December

2000, and which forms Part II of the Constitutional Treaty with legally binding

effect, brings together a package of rights, freedoms and principles which will, when

the Constitutional Treaty enters into force, bind the EU institutions and the

Member States when they apply EU law. The Commission considers that, although it

is not legally mandatory as matters stand, it already constitutes an authentic

expression of the fundamental rights protected by Community law as a set of general

principles.

As such, it constitutes an essential reference document in the discussion on the

definition of the Agency’s areas of intervention.

It might be worth asking the Agency to monitor all the fundamental rights protected

by Community law and included in the Charter (19). This would provide an overall

view of the rights on which the EU is based, which is essential to the harmonious

development of the different categories of fundamental rights. It would also ensure

that any hierarchisation of rights does not jeopardise their universal application or

prevent their interdependence from being emphasised.

A reference to the Charter would, however, give the Agency an extremely broad field

of action, especially if its activities were to include respect for fundamental rights in

relations between the individual and the EU institutions or States, but also in all

social relations between individuals, as is currently the case in respect of racism and

xenophobia.

Another option would be to focus the Agency’s work on thematic areas having a

special connection with Community policies or the Union (immigration, asylum,

non-discrimination, ethical questions, guarantee of criminal proceedings, violence,

etc.). Among these, racism and xenophobia would continue to be given priority by

the Agency. This stems from the December 2003 decision, which provides for the

enlargement of the Centre’s remit. In this respect, the definition of the Agency’s aims

must take account of the recent European Council decision on the creation of a

European Gender Institute (20).

Whichever option is chosen, it must ensure a balance between a potentially vast area

of intervention and the effectiveness of the Agency. Some flexibility is therefore

desirable.

GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE

Should the Agency’s activities be confined to the Union or should they also cover

third countries?

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Confining the Agency’s scope to the Union would

emphasise the importance of fundamental rights in

effective means of placing responsibility on its

fundamental rights. It would also help in determining

that the Agency will require.

clearly underline the will to

the Union and would be an

institutions in the field of

the capacity and the expertise

This message might be diluted if the Agency’s remit were to be extended to third

countries; the Commission rejected this option in its Communication on the EU’s

role in promoting human rights and democratisation in third countries (21), and the

Council shared its approach in its conclusions of 25 June 2001 (22). In addition,

respect for human rights in the Union’s foreign policy is already taken into account

in the context of cooperation with third countries.

TASKS TO BE ENTRUSTED TO THE AGENCY

The Agency should collect data on fundamental rights to enable the Union to take

fundamental rights fully into account when drafting and implementing its policies.

This would mean focusing the Agency's tasks on two areas: data collection and

analysis and the drafting of opinions (23).

These tasks could certainly be supplemented by others, including maintaining regular

dialogue with the EU institutions, the Member States and civil society in order to

promote fundamental rights.

5.1.

Data collection and analysis

The Agency’s principal tasks can be defined as the collection and analysis of

objective, reliable and comparable data at European level. To that end, it is essential

that it play an active part in networking with other bodies.

Data collection is the main objective of the Centre, pursuant to Article 2(1) of the

1997 Regulation.

Data should be collected in cooperation with the Member States and the members of

civil society dealing with fundamental rights, notably NGOs, national institutes for

fundamental rights and the Council of Europe. The network of independent experts

for fundamental rights could also be an important source of information for the

Agency.

Several methods could be used to collect good-quality information. Methods should

also be found for ensuring that the information is objective, reliable and comparable.

An active approach could be taken by requesting the Agency to set up data collection

mechanisms. The Centre takes this approach with the Raxen network (24). The

Agency could thus set up one or more networks to help it in this task, in addition to

the existing network.

On the other hand, data could be collected passively, with the EU institutions and

Member States being required to send data, for example in the form of regular

reports. The data could be supplemented by optional reports from NGOs or other

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members of civil society. By thus transferring the burden of collection, the question

of data quality and comparability is left intact.

The active solution, which leaves the Agency free to seek information from a variety

of sources, means it must select it with care to ensure that it is reliable, but the

Community and national authorities would be less involved in the process.

The passive solution releases the Agency from the obligation to set up data search

machinery and places the responsibility more on the EU institutions and the

Member States as regards the transmission and quality of the data. Regular reports

would also allow more regular monitoring of the situation as regards fundamental

rights.

5.2.

Opinions and views intended for the EU institutions and the Member States

Data collection and analysis should be targeted on the drafting of opinions for the

institutions and the Member States, in which the Agency would set out its analyses.

Executing this task could take the form of published reports or other means of

communication.

5.3.

A communications and dialogue strategy

Dissemination of the work carried out by the Agency and the dialogue with the

various members of civil society should form part of a clearly defined

communications strategy that meets the needs of its customers and thus creates the

conditions for coordinating a fundamental rights awareness and education policy

with what is being done nationally and by the Council of Europe.

The communications strategy would notably involve the publication of reviews,

information bulletins and studies, the organisation of a website and a database. It

would be a major tool in the dialogue between the Agency and the different actors in

the field of fundamental rights, notably the NGOs (25), and in cooperation with the

Council of Europe and the national human rights bodies.

RELATIONS WITH CIVIL SOCIETY

The Agency should establish relations with NGOs, the social partners, universities

and other partners involved in fundamental rights, as well as with the specialist

bodies dealing with the protection of fundamental rights in the field of personal data

and privacy.

It would be important to ask it to maintain regular contact with those parties whose

expertise will make a valuable contribution to its work.

The contacts could take the form of a network set up among the partners.

The activities of the Agency must not, however, compromise the independence of the

partners.

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7.1.

SYNERGIES WITH OTHER BODIES

With the Council of Europe

Close cooperation must be established, like that between the Centre and the

European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) (27), which provides

for the participation of the Council of Europe (26).

Specific forms of cooperation with the Council of Europe will be defined bilaterally.

It would also be desirable for the Agency to develop close relations with, for

instance, the Commissioner for Human Rights to ensure that their respective areas of

competence complement each other.

7.2.

With the national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights

Special attention should be paid to the links which the Agency could develop with

national bodies, notably with a view to determining respective work programmes. A

network could be set up between the Agency and the national agencies or equivalent

bodies in the Member States.

7.3.

With the network of independent experts on fundamental rights

It is necessary to identify the synergies which the Agency could develop with the

network of independent experts on fundamental rights, set up by the Commission at

the request of the European Parliament, and to determine whether retaining the two

structures will give real added value to the promotion and protection of fundamental

rights.

STRUCTURE OF THE AGENCY

In order to carry out its tasks objectively, the Agency must be independent.

It must be independent of all those with whom it will come into contact: the

Commission, European Parliament, Council, Member States and civil society.

In exchange for the independence of the Agency in the pursuit of the tasks it will be

given, an appropriate system of responsibility and liability (political, financial,

administrative, and legal) will also have to be clearly established.

At the same time, the efficiency of the Agency, which is intended to be a lightweight

structure in terms of staff and budget, and its transparency and representativeness

must not be compromised.

These points must be considered and conclusions drawn with regard to the structure

of the Agency and the composition of the management bodies.

A measure of the importance attributed to the Agency would be if representatives

appointed by the Commission, the European Parliament, the Member States and the

Council of Europe were to participate in its management bodies.

To ensure that it is effective, the Agency’s management bodies must:

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–

have the necessary expertise to define the Agency’s work programme and also

administer it;

optimise the influence of the Agency on decision-makers in the Member States

and the EU institutions. It might be advisable to consider adding a scientific

committee to the structures of the Centre (Management Board, Executive

Board, Director) (28).

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Annex: References

(1)

Created by Council Regulation (EC) n° 1035/97 of 2 June 1997 establishing a

European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, OJ L 151 of 10 June 1997,

p. 11. The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia was created in

June 1997. The primary role of the Monitoring Centre consists of collecting and

analysing data on racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism, as well as studying the

causes of these phenomena, in order to help the Community and the Member States to

conceive and to target their policies. The Monitoring Centre, which is based in Vienna,

employs approximately 30 people and has an operational budget amounting in 2003 to

€6.5 million.

For the purposes of this text, the expressions “fundamental rights” and “human rights”

carry the same meaning.

In 2000, the wise mens’ report, (report of Messrs Martti Ahtisaari, Jochen Frowein and

Marcelino Oreja, analysing “the commitment of the Austrian Government to the

common European values, in particular relating to the rights of minorities, refugees

and immigrants”, presented on 8 September 2000 in Paris) recommended the creation

of an EU Agency on Human Rights in order to contribute to the establishment “of a

mechanism within the EU to monitor and evaluate the commitment and performance

of individual Member States with respect to common European values”.

Item 46 of the conclusions.

See, in particular, the European Parliament resolution on the annual report on respect

for human rights in the European Union, of 16 March 2000, § 94 (A5-0050/2000), the

European Parliament resolution on International Human Rights and European Union

Human Rights Policy, of 16 March 2000, § 10 (A5-0060/2000), the European

Parliament resolution on the human rights situation in the European Union, of 15

January 2003, § 8 (A5-0451/2002), and the European Parliament resolution on the

Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European parliament on

the European Union's role in promoting human rights and democratisation in third

countries, of 25</Titre> April 2002, §§ 25 – 28 (A5-0084/2002).

The explicit engagement of the Union to respect fundamental rights results from

Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union. The Charter of Fundamental Rights “The

Charter”, declared in Nice in December 2000 and published OJ C 364 of 18 December

2000, p. 1, has been included in part II of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for

Europe, with binding legal force. It constitutes an authentic expression of the

fundamental rights protected by the Community legal framework.

To date, the European Union is not a member of the ECHR, although the legal and

political consequences of such an adhesion have been discussed and examined for

years.

The question was in particular raised with respect to the Charter of Fundamental

Rights. The importance of keeping a balance between this document and the ECHR

led to the insertion of a provision in Article 52 (3) of the Charter, stating that “Insofar

as this Charter contains rights which correspond to rights guaranteed by the

Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

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meaning and scope of those rights shall be the same as those laid down by the said

Convention. This provision shall not prevent Union law from providing more

extensive protection”.

Article I-9 (2) of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe stipulates that the

Union shall accede to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights

and Fundamental Freedoms. Such accession shall not affect the Union's competences

as defined in the Constitution.

(8)

(9)

(10)

See recital 2 of regulation 1035/97.

Currently, thirty people work at the Monitoring Centre; in 2003 the budget was €6.5

million.

Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the

European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, on the

activities of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, together

with proposals to recast Council Regulation (EC) 1035/97, a proposal for a Council

regulation on the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (Recast

version) COM (2003) 483 final version.

The integral report submitted by the assessors may be consulted on the Internet at the

following address:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/fundamental_rights/pdf/origin/eumc_ev

al2002_fr.pdf

(12)

(13)

The Commission commits to go ahead with its regulation proposal after an ex-ante

evaluation so as to ensure the principle of sound financial management.

In the annex, an opinion has been drawn up by the Network of independent experts on

fundamental rights concerning the role of national institutions for the protection of

human rights in the member states of the European Union.

The Council of Europe also formulated principles on the establishment of independent

national human rights institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights

(Recommendation No. R (97) 14 of 30 September 1997).

The debate has already been complemented by a working paper of the European

Parliament presented by Mrs Swiebel (EP <NoPE>339.635) and by contributions of

Amnesty International, Social Platform and of the European Association for the

Protection of Human Rights (FIDH-AE).

Article 51 of the Charter stipulates that it neither extends the scope of the law of the

Union beyond the competences of the Union, nor creates any new competence or task

for the Union.

This article was the subject of a Communication from the Commission to the Council

and the European Parliament on Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union - Respect

for and promotion of the values on which the Union is based, COM (2003) 606 final

of 15.10.2003.

(11)

(14)

(15)

(16)

(17)

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(18)

In particular the case of Directive 46/95 on data protection which envisages the

creation by the Member States of supervisory authorities, and of Directive 2000/43/EC

on equal treatment between persons, irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, which

provides for the designation by the Member States of bodies responsible for upholding

this equality.

The provisions of the Charter have a clear basis for interpretation in the "Explanations

relating to the complete text of the Charter", a document drawn up under the

responsibility of the Praesidium of the Convention which drafted the Charter, not

having any legal effect and intended simply for clarifying the provisions of this

document. Although these explanations do not have in itself any legal effect, they

constitute a valuable interpretation tool intended to clarify the provisions of the

Charter.

The conclusion 43 of the presidency of the European Council of Brussels (17 and 18

June 2004) pointing out the aims of equality stated in the Lisbon programme and in

the light of the political agreement reached within the Council, expresses its support

for the creation of a European Institute for equality between men and women and calls

on the Commission to submit it a proposal in this direction.

COM (2001) 252 final of 8 May 2001, item 5. Indeed, the Commission considered

itself to have complete sources of information and advice on the matter and did not

consider it convenient to create an implementation agency for the development of the

projects with regard to the third countries.

"The Council underlines the importance of enhancing co-ordination and co-operation

between Community actions and the CFSP in the promotion and protection of human

rights and efforts to strengthen democracy. Hence, the Council recalls that the

Community's actions should be consistent with the European Union’s action as a

whole, including the CFSP. The Council shares the Commission's opinion that these

objectives should be achieved without establishing new structures", 2362nd session of

the Council on – general Affairs.

Opinions restrict themselves to expressing the opinion of the entity that it emits and

are not binding opposite the entity to which they address themselves.

See Article 2 (2) point h) of the regulation n° 1035/97.

Strengthening the dialogue with the civil society, in particular with the NGOs, is an

objective that the Commission stated on several occasions, in particular, in the

Communication on Article 7 EUT, already mentioned (cf. its item 2.4).

The Council of Europe has several instruments and mechanisms as regards protection

of human rights, the principal of which are: the European Convention of Human

rights, the European social Charter, European Convention for the Prevention of

Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Convention on

Human rights and biomedicine, the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with

regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, the Framework Convention for the

Protection of National Minorities, the European Charter for Regional or Minority

Languages and the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance.

(19)

(20)

(21)

(22)

(23)

(24)

(25)

(26)

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(27)

Council decision of 21 December 1998 relating to the conclusion of an Agreement

between the European Community and the Council of Europe for the purpose of

establishing, in accordance with Article 7(3) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1035/97

of 2 June 1997 establishing a European Monitoring Centre on Racism and

Xenophobia, close cooperation between the Centre and the Council of Europe, OJ L

44 of the 18. 2.1999, p. 33.

See Article 10 of the Council Regulation (EEC) No 302/93 of 8 February 1993 on the

establishment of a European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, OJ L

36, 12.02.1993, p. 1

(28)