European Commission reports on the application of the Charter of fundamental rights in the EU in 2017

First Vice-President Frans Timmermans said: “This year we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights. This is a good opportunity to recall that fundamental rights, democracy and the rule of law are the three pillars that are the bedrock of the European Union. Our Charter of fundamental rights is not optional. The EU institutions are bound by it and so are the Member States when implementing EU law. The Court of Justice of the EU and the national courts play an important role to uphold fundamental rights and the rule of law across the Union.”

Věra Jourová, EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality added: “We saw some encouraging developments in 2017, for instance when it comes to tackling racism and other illegal hate speech online through our code of conduct with social media platforms. Also the European Pillar of Social Rights was an important step towards more equality, showing that Europe is much more than a market. It is a Union of values that protects. 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. We will continue to work relentlessly to uphold fundamental rights, the rule of law and our democratic values in our Union.”

Some of the key initiatives promoting fundamental rights in 2017 include:

• Further support democracy and civil society – The report underlines the need for a renewed support to democracy. The role of civil society and current challenges were put to the fore in 2017. Support to civil society is included prominently in the multiannual financial framework and a new Justice, Rights and Values Fund was adopted on 30 May this year.
• Boosting social rights – The report shows some very encouraging strides in the areas of social rights, with the adoption of the European Pillar of Social rights and its follow-up actions. It adopted initiatives to ensure better work-life balance opportunities for people with caring responsibilities. The Commission has proposed to ensure more predictable and transparent working conditions, in particular for workers in non-standard forms of employment such as those with zero-hours or on-demand contracts.
• Combating discrimination against women – The EU’s signing of the Istanbul convention on preventing and combating violence against women is a significant step. It will now be important to ensure swift ratification by the EU. The Commission also presented an action plan to combat the gender pay gap.
• Protecting children in migration – The Communication on the protection of the children in migration presented urgent actions to be implemented at the EU and national level, which were followed by Council conclusions in June 2017. The Commission established a European Network on Guardianship to facilitate cooperation between national authorities.
• Tackling discrimination and combatting racism, both offline and online -The Commission strengthened its cooperation with IT companies, national authorities and civil society organisations to ensure that online illegal hate speech is quickly identified and taken down, and assisted Member States in their efforts to step-up enforcement of EU law on hate crime, access to justice, protection and support for victims of hate crime.
• Improving access to justice and effective remedies – Following its Communication “Better Results Through Better Application“, the Commission assisted Member States in their efforts to step-up enforcement of EU law for the benefit of individuals and businesses. In the context of the European Semester, the Commission addressed country-specific recommendations to help Member States improve their justice systems.

Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights

The report focuses on the 2017 Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights, which was devoted to “women’s rights under attack“. The Commission committed to a number of actions ranging from putting women’s rights and gender equality on the agenda at the highest political level to funding grassroots projects.

Equinet Chair Tena Šimonović Einwalter

Read more about Equinet’s participation at the 2017 Annual Colloquium here.

The 2018 Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights will be devoted to “Democracy in the EU” and will take place on 26-27 November. Participants will work together to identify ways to foster free and open democratic participation in an era of growing low turnout in elections, populism, digitalisation and threats to civil society. It will be an opportunity to reaffirm one of the EU’s key values in the run-up to the European elections.

Read press release on EC website

Equality Bodies and the Charter of Fundamental Rights

On 16-17 June 2015, Equinet hosted the conference ’Charting the Charter: Equality bodies and fundamental rights in the EU’ to facilitate exchange between equality bodies and national and European stakeholders on the role and importance of the Charter in safeguarding fundamental rights, ensuring equality and combating discrimination and it will have a particular focus on the practical use and benefits of the Charter for equality bodies.

This seminar was designed to enable equality bodies’ staff to:

• Discuss the legal nature of the Charter, and its relevance for practitioners and in particular equality bodies
• Familiarise themselves with the content of the Charter
• Learn about the Charter’s applicability at national level and its links with other human rights instruments such as the European Convention on Human Rights
• Share their knowledge and experience during the sessions and during the breaks
• Learn about good practice initiatives and projects by other equality bodies
• Make better use of the Charter in their work at domestic level
• Upon their return, inform their colleagues about the lessons learned at the training.

Further Reading

Work Life Balance (2018)
In Focus Brief – Equinet