By adopting the report by Mr Glyn FORD (PSE, UK), the European Parliament approved the
establishment of a European Monitoring Centre for Racism and Xenophobia with the aim of making
it part of the Community framework.
The main amendments seek:
-to accentuate the role of coordination and harmonization of studies on manifestations of racism and
xenophobia, to encourage the analysis of the causes, consequences and effects of racism and to
compare good practices in this respect;
-to support the setting up and linking of documentation resources open to the public and to assist in
the promotion of information activities;
-to cooperate with other regional organizations active in this field;
-in the setting up of the RAXEN network, to enable common criteria and comparable data to be
established;
-as regards the areas on which the Centre should concentrate its activities, to include religious
freedom and preventive measures and means of action to combat racism and xenophobia;
-to emphasize Parliament's role, especially in the formulation of conclusions and recommendations
addressed to the Member States and also in the administrative field. To this end, Parliament wants
to be able to appoint one of the people who will sit on the Centre's Executive Board and calls for the
Chairman of the Management Board to be the Commission's representative. Parliament also wants
to increase its control, especially in budgetary matters: it gives the Director discharge in respect of
the implementation of the budget. The budget is to be established in accordance with the financial
provisions that apply to the European Union's other 'satellite bodies'. Parliament also calls for the
establishment of a budget with revenue and expenditure and for the adoption by the budgetary
authority of the Community subsidy for the Centre. Each year it and the Council are to be informed
of the accounts and all the Centre's expenditure;
-to ensure that the staff are recruited without any discrimination on grounds of nationality on
temporary or fixed-term contracts or on secondment from specialist bodies within or outside the
European Union.�