Rick Lawson elected member of the Management Board of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency
In November 2020 former dean Rick Lawson, professor of European Human Rights Law, was elected member of the Management Board of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency in Vienna. He was nominated by the Dutch Government following an open selection procedure.
In the same procedure dr. Kathalijne Buitenweg, Member of Parliament until March 2021 and Member of the Council of State (Raad van State) as of 1 June 2021, was elected member as alternate member of the Management Board.
The Fundamental Rights Agency was founded by the EU as an independent body in 2007. Its main task is to provide the EU institutions and Member States with independent, evidence-based policy advice on fundamental rights, and to raise rights awareness at the EU, national and local level. To this end the FRA collects and analyses law and data, issues publications and organizes events. The Agency has a staff of about 100 fte from 23 different nationalities that includes legal experts, political and social scientists, statisticians, and communication specialists; it has a budget of appr. €23 million.
The Management Board is responsible for the definition of the Agency's priorities, the establishment of the budget and for monitoring the Agency's operation. The Board consists of people with experience in the management of public or private sector organisations and knowledge in the field of fundamental rights. To this end the MB is composed of one independent person appointed by each of the 27 Member States of the EU, as well as an independent person appointed by the Council of Europe and two representatives of the European Commission. The MB meets in Vienna.
One of the tasks of the MB is to appoint the members of the Scientific committee – which currently has Prof. Nico Schrijver (public international law) as one of its members.