Based on shared areas of interest, the Grants and the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) have agreed to a ‘Letter of intent’ to formalise and further develop their cooperation. This will include the promotion of Roma inclusion, supporting responses to hate crime by public authorities and civil society and promoting visibility of FRA’s survey on gender-based violence.
“We are looking forward to broadening our cooperation with FRA in an effort to further increase our focus on human rights and in combating discrimination,” said Stine Andresen, Director at the EEA and Norway Grants Financial Mechanism Office.
“We welcome this opportunity to strengthen our ties with the EEA and Norway Grants as we continue to work together to address the fundamental rights challenges that persist across Europe,” said FRA Director Morten Kjaerum. “We will build on previous support, complement each other’s work, and further enable public authorities and civil society to tackle fundamental rights’ issues on the ground.”
Further developing the cooperation
The EEA and Norway Grants and FRA have been in dialogue on issues of common interest for some time. This cooperation led to involvement of the EEA and Norway Grants as a key partner at the Fundamental Rights Conference ‘Combating Hate Crime in the EU’ organised by FRA in Vilnius in November last year.
Focus on common interests
The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) was established in 2007 as one of the EU’s specialised agencies, providing independent, evidence-based advice on fundamental rights. Fundamental rights set out minimum standards to ensure that a person is treated with dignity. FRA helps to ensure that the fundamental rights of people living in the EU are protected. The EEA and Norway Grants have a strong focus on strengthening fundamental and human rights, combating social exclusion and all forms of discrimination in many of their funded programmes.