They discussed challenges and opportunities in applying the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and in monitoring the fundamental rights aspects to the rule of law.
The discussions pointed to the need of increasing capacity of legal professionals in applying the EU Charter. This includes a possible role for NHRIs in monitoring how the spending of EU funds complies with the Charter.
FRA will further address numerous promising practices, but also challenges, in its regional cooperation project, ‘Supporting National Human Rights Institutions in monitoring fundamental rights and the fundamental rights aspects of the rule of law’. The EEA and Norway Grants funds the project.
The meeting was followed by a study visit from 23 to 29 March. Here FRA held capacity-building and peer-to-peer learning sessions with national project partners. The partners are National Human Rights Institutions from Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The focus was on promoting the national use of FRA’s e-learning Charter tool, optimising rule of law monitoring and developing guidance on the role of NHRIs in the context of EU funds monitoring.
