FRA – Protecting, promoting and fulfilling fundamental rights across the EU
Highlights
- Press ReleaseRemote biometric identification (RBI), including facial and voice recognition technologies, supports law enforcement in preventing, detecting and investigating crime, identifying suspects and searching for victims or missing persons. But the ability to identify people remotely, including in publicly accessible places, also raises fundamental rights risks. A new report from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) finds that strong safeguards, effective oversight and clear legal frameworks are essential to ensure these AI-driven technologies are used lawfully and proportionately.
- News ItemThe Greek version of the updated Handbook on European law relating to asylum, borders and immigration is now available. It comes at a particularly relevant time for Greece, following the entry into force of the new Pact on Migration and Asylum in June.
- News ItemThe Mediterranean remains one of the world's deadliest sea migration routes. During the first six months of 2026, at least 1,410 people died or went missing while attempting to reach Europe by sea, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Since 2014, more than 35,000 people have lost their lives or gone missing while seeking safety, protection or a better life in Europe. To save migrants in distress at sea, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) deploy search and rescue (SAR) vessels in the Central Mediterranean but continue to face legal and administrative obstacles.
Research and data
Capacity-building
Advising
Convening people
EU gender-based violence survey
The results from the EU gender-based violence survey represent women aged 18 to 74 from across the EU. It covers experiences of physical, sexual and psychological violence, including domestic and non-partner violence. It also reports on sexual harassment at work.
- Criminal investigations rely on large amounts of personal data processed by law enforcement authorities. This sensitive information must be handled in line with EU data protection rules and people’s rights. The Law Enforcement Directive sets out rules for how authorities can process data in a way that safeguards fundamental rights and freedoms. This report looks at how data protection rules are applied in practice in all EU Member States. It highlights challenges concerning understanding and compliance, the role and resources of data protection officers, and effective supervision. The results contribute to an EU-level assessment of how the directive is applied in practice, pointing to areas for future improvement.
- FRA and EIGE conducted the European Union gender-based violence survey (EU-GBV survey) in eight EU Member States – Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Romania and Sweden. This report describes the measures taken to carry out the survey, which resulted in a final dataset of 15,447 interviews across the eight survey countries.
- Report / Paper / SummaryToday, a single camera scan from a distance can identify one person in a crowd. Law enforcement authorities in a growing number of EU Member States use or are considering using this AI-driven technique, known as remote biometric identification. While it can support public security and protect people from crime, it also poses serious risks to fundamental rights. FRA’s report draws on legal analysis, interviews with law enforcement practitioners and other experts, observations of police work and a public survey across selected EU Member States. FRA points to the need for a comprehensive legal basis for RBI use for law enforcement, including defined purposes, limits on identifying participants in peaceful assemblies or political gatherings, independent oversight and fundamental rights impact assessments, all of which should be in place before RBI is deployed.
- The Roma Survey 2024 and its predecessors describe discrimination and bias-motivated harassment and violence experienced by Roma and Travellers across Europe. The Survey provides data which policy makers can use to address these high-priority agenda issues and most importantly assess progress over time as regards equality and non-discrimination in key areas of life. This technical report provides a detailed overview of the survey methodology used by FRA when collecting the survey data.
Explore FRA’s LGBTIQ survey data online
The online data explorer for FRA’s LGBTIQ Survey is now available. It draws on findings from over 100,000 respondents from all 27 EU countries, Albania, the Republic of North Macedonia and Serbia.