European Fundamental Rights Agency

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The European Fundamental Rights Agency (formally, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights) is a proposed agency of the European Union which will be set up in Vienna. Intended as a successor to the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), its mandate would be "collecting and analysing data on fundamental rights with reference to, in principle, all rights listed in the Charter"; however, it is intended to focus particularly on "the thematic areas within the scope of Union law". (Source: Commission proposal). This is an expansion upon the scope of the present EUMC, which is restricted to issues of racism and xenophobia.

Like the current EUMC, its primary methods of operation are investigation, reports, provision of expert assistance to EU bodies, member states, and EU candidate countries and potential candidate countries, and the education of the public. It is not intended to intervene in individual cases - that being the remit of the European Court of Human Rights - but rather investigate broad issues and trends.