The EU Creates the Fundamental Rights Agency

The EU may or may not be doing some justice. It depends on who you ask. Having collected data on minority hate crime over a nine year period the European Union's Vienna-based Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia officially closed on Thursday and was taken over by a newly created Fundamental Rights Agency.

The Jerusalem Post reports that EU officials are hopeful the new agency launched Thursday will improve on the work done by the Monitoring Centre. The Centre monitored hate crimes including those against Jews.

Some European Jews and NGOs, however, are skeptical.

Gideon Van Emden, policy officer at CEJI - A Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe - in Brussels said, "People are worried," CEJI is a nonprofit organization that runs anti-racism and pro-diversity educational programs. There is some confusion as to how it will all work, "and that is not a positive thing," Van Emden said.

It's feared that statistics on anti-Semitism collected by the Monitoring Centre will fall between the cracks when the agency moves to the EU because of it's broader scope, said Shimon Samuels, the director for international relations at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Paris.

Both Van Emden and Samuels said they had not always been happy with the work done at the Monitoring Centre. The center met with a firestorm of controversy when it shelved a 2003 report that concluded that many violent anti-Semitic acts were committed by radical Muslims. Since then, it has issued numerous reports on racism against minority groups, including Jews. Its last report on anti-Semitism was published in December.

EU officials said the closure of the Monitoring Centre did not reflect on its performance but instead represented a shift in focus on racism and human rights in Europe.

In an opinion piece in Deutsche Welle, Bernd Riegert, questions the necessity and power of another " Human Rights" agency to join the many others already established in Europe,

" Is it a necessary watchdog or just a toothless paper tiger? Experts have been debating this question since 1998, when talks about a fundamental rights agency began. One thing is certain, though: The new agency is superfluous and expensive. Other offices in Europe have already been doing the job that it is supposed to take on. Other organizations have it covered," he states.

He lists the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, The European Human Rights Convention, the European Human Rights Court, under the auspices of the Council of Europe, and European Court of Justice in Luxemburg.