FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AGENCY (10774/05)
Letter from the Chairman to Rt Hon Baroness
Ashton of Upholland, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department
for Constitutional Affairs
Thank you for your letter of 8 September 2006[93]which
has been made available to Sub-Committee E. I should be grateful
if you would keep the Committee informed of developments.
12 October 2006
Letter from the Chairman to Rt Hon Baroness
Ashton of Upholland
Sub-Committee E examined the proposal at its
meeting on 22 November 2006.
We are pleased to see that a number of the Committee's
recommendations contained in its Report Human Rights Protection
in Europe: the Fundamental Rights Agency, 29th Report of Session
2005-06, HL Paper 155 are reflected in the current position of
the draft proposal. Your Explanatory Memorandum explains that
revised Article 4(2) allows a limited legislative scrutiny role
for the Agency, which is something which we would particularly
welcome. However, it is by no means obvious from that Article
that legislative scrutiny is what is being envisaged here. This
could be made clearer in the text.
The area of the proposal which we find most
disappointing relates to the independence of the Agency and its
management structure. As we made clear in our Report, there is
a danger that the combination of the one-Member State-one-seat
management board and the significant role of the Council in determining
the Agency's work programme will lead to excessive interference
in and constraints on the Agency's work. We are pleased to learn
from Meg Munn MP that the Government are considering agreeing
to a smaller management board for the European Institute of Gender
Equality.
We note that this draft still includes the Decision
empowering the Agency to act in Third Pillar matters and we express
once again our strong support for the inclusion of this remit.
As Recital 8 seeks to preclude the Agency from having a role outside
the scope of application of Community law, some revisions will
clearly have to be made to the proposal if a Third Pillar remit
is agreed.
We have decided to clear the document from scrutiny.
23 November 2006
93 Corresondence with Ministers, 40th Report of Session
2006-07, HL Paper 187, pp 356-357. Back
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