European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights: Fundamental Rights Report 2025
The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) released its Fundamental Rights report 2025. It provides a comprehensive overview of the situation of fundamental rights in the European Union, with a focus on the major developments and trends in 2024.
The Fundamental Rights Report 2025 is an essential resource for anyone interested in understanding the evolving landscape of fundamental rights within the EU. It supports policymakers, practitioners, and civil society organisations in their efforts to promote and safeguard these rights.
The first chapter represents a general overview of the fundamental rights landscape regarding the changing political climate in the EU in 2024.
The next chapters delve into key areas: inclusive elections, gender-based violence and the implementation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Each chapter highlights progress in these fields, backed by thorough research and analysis.
Important attention is given to digital technologies. FRA’s report illustrates the risk of biased algorithms that embed societal biases and can reinforce or even create discrimination against certain groups. A significant legislative achievement in 2024 was the adoption of the Artificial Intelligence Act. The AI Act is a welcome and timely development that will support the safeguarding of fundamental rights. It prohibits AI from being used for the harmful exploitation of vulnerabilities, being used in predicting individual criminal behaviour or being used in social scoring. FRA is also working on AI projects focused on remote biometric identification and digitalisation of justice. Results are expected to be published in 2025.
Another important aspect on which FRA focuses is the deaths at sea, ill treatment and other rights violations at borders, which remain a serious concern. As some rules in the pact on migration and asylum raise new risks for fundamental rights, fundamental rights monitoring will be essential. Efforts to make returns more effective and efficient are likely to continue in 2025, so this remains an area for vigilance, depending on their application and implementation.
Capacity for search and rescue remains critical, while civil society’s activity has been reduced as a result of restrictions imposed by some Member States. To address these issues, FRA reiterates the calls its publications have made to the EU and its Member States. These include practical steps that the EU and Member States can take such as ensuring sufficient search and rescue capacity, stopping non-governmental organisations from being criminalised when they help migrants in rescues at sea, any rules on facilitation should exclude punishing those who provide humanitarian assistance, investigate all allegations of fundamental rights violations at borders promptly and effectively.