Individual, Institutional and Collective Vigilance in Protecting Fundamental Rights in the EU: Lessons from the Roma

Abstract

The extensive row between France and the European Commission over the deportation of EU citizens of Roma origin in the summer of 2010 created a wave of media and academic attention in Europe; a problem that, according to a recent report of human rights watch, has continued over the last year. Several experts have explored the conformity of the France’s actions with European Union law. While these questions are of great practical relevance for victims and stakeholders, this series of events is particularly interesting for broader reasons. They pose a crucial question: what is the added value of European Union intervention in the field of fundamental rights? The case of the Roma addresses the age-old question of the additional value EU input in fundamental rights questions can bring in addition to the numerous other protections offered both through national constitutional frameworks and through the system of rights and remedies provided by the ECHR system.

This paper argues that the Roma examples evidences important strengths and weaknesses also in the mechanisms available to enforce EU fundamental rights. In order to ensure adequate protection of non-discrimination rights in the EU, the existing system of ‘dual vigilance’ based on individual litigation at national level combined with enforcement action initiated by the Commission, needs to be complemented by an intermediate ‘collective’ level. Such a collective level of vigilance not only uses NGOs and/or equality bodies as intermediaries to enhance individual and institutional enforcement, but also entitles NGOs and/or other organizations representing collective interests to ensure collective enforcement of EU fundamental rights.