Human rights impact assessment and evaluation of legislation in EU-30 – drivers and hurdles

This project compares the role of fundamental rights in national legislative process in selected Member States by looking into legal scrutiny procedures, impact assessment procedures and any evaluation of already adopted and implemented national legislation.
Project Status
Ongoing
Project start date
September
2024

What?

This project compares the role of fundamental rights in national legislative process in selected Member States by looking into legal scrutiny procedures, impact assessment procedures and any evaluation of already adopted and implemented national legislation.

Why?

FRA research shows that the Charter is underused in national legislative process and examples of impact assessments considering the Charter are scarce or conducted superficially (Fundamental Rights reports 2022, 2023 and 2024). 

In its strategy to strengthen the application of the Charter, the European Commission invited EU Member States to use impact assessments and legislative scrutiny procedures to ensure that initiatives implementing EU law comply with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. They were also invited to develop guidance and training for national and local administrations for this purpose.

How?

The research methodology for this project combines desk research and fieldwork. This entails expert interviews in Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Slovenia and North Macedonia. Consultations with national human rights institutions, equality bodies and civil society organisations will also be carried out. 

Interviews will provide information on: 

  • how human rights impact assessments are carried out at the national level (actors, mandate, content, procedure and practices, explicit and implicit relevance of the Charter, participation of independent bodies and civil society, transparency); 
  • getting insights into the way legal scrutiny is carried out and considered during the legislative process; 
  • monitoring and evaluation of legislation from a fundamental rights perspective; 
  • ways forward and recommendations.

Findings

 The research will feed into a report focusing on promising practices to be published by the Agency ahead of the 25th anniversary of the proclamation of the EU Charter in December 2025.