Frontex publishes first Annual Report of the Frontex Consultative Forum on Fundamental Rights

The key task of the Consultative Forum is to provide advice to Frontex on fundamental rights issues. The Annual Report gives an overview of the activities undertaken by the Consultative Forum in 2013 and contains the main recommendations made to Frontex and its Management Board.

The overall goal of the Consultative Forum is to demonstrate that cooperation between the broad spectrum of civil society which it represents and Frontex can help to improve fundamental rights protection at EU’s external borders. Core areas on which the Consultative Forum is consulted include the further development and implementation of Frontex’ Fundamental Rights Strategy and Code of Conduct. The Consultative Forum is also working on selected issues in the fields of strategic planning, joint operations, risk analysis and training.

The Annual Report contains some good practices, as well as some points that need to be improved.The Report concludes with the following good experiences:

  • The visiting of joint operations has turned out to be indispensable for the Consultative Forum to base its recommendations on the actual developments in the field.
  • Frontex invited members of the Consultative Forum to ‘review meetings’ with national experts in order to exchange ideas and to avoid diverging fundamental rights analyses.

Moreover, the Report’s conclusion contains the following working points:

  • The question remains as to how fundamental rights are effectively implemented in daily practice and mainstreamed into the procedures within joint operations.
  • The access to some Frontex documents should be improved in order for the Consultative Forum to make more meaningful recommendations.
  • More time is needed for the preparation of the consultation process (including the preparation of expert meetings). The Consultative Forum will follow-up on the impact and implementation of its recommendations.

Finally, the Report declares very good working relations have been established between the Consultative Forum and the respective Frontex Units and it lists its priorities for 2014.

Publication Date:
Thu 07 Aug 2014
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