A planned new E.U. Human Rights Agency will probably commence operations in 2007 and be based in Vienna, the Standard newspaper reported Wednesday. The present Vienna-based E.U. Monitoring Centre on racism and xenophobia (EUMC) would be upgraded into the agency, said the report. The duties of the new agency have been discussed at a hearing in Brussels on Tuesday. In May, E.U. Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini would submit draft legislation. He said he did not see the plans as criticism of the EUMC. On the contrary, "racism and xenophobia will also be important tasks for the new authority. The transformation into an agency is an upgrading." Frattini stressed the new agency must be "completely independent". It would be limited to monitoring human rights in the E.U. members and candidate countries, with particular importance given to observing the situation in Turkey. The report said it was not yet clear what powers the agency should have. One of the most disputed questions at the hearing was whether it should merely collect and analyze information or also pronounce judgment.
