On June 22, we had our Bi-annual meeting with Commissioner Viviane Reding, responsible for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship. Following the questions raised by member organisations on the Charter on Fundamental Rights, on homophobic and transphobic violence and children rights, the Commissioner's cabinet has given us the following responses:

The Annual Report will aim at giving an overview on the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the areas where the Union has the power to act. The report will provide information on what the Commission has done to apply its Fundamental Rights policy and the major developments within the EU in this area. In preparing its report, the Commission will draw upon all sources of information that contain reliable and comparable data in relation to policy areas that are relevant in the context of EU law.

The Report is not meant to replace consultation or dialogue with civil society, but rather to facilitate it by providing information on what has been done by the Commission. The NGOs should continue their scrutiny and reporting, depending on their practices and approaches.

Data from different sources confirm that LGBT people face widespread problems as a consequence of homophobic speech and crime. The Commission has asked the Fundamental Rights Agency to collect more relevant data to gain a clear view of the extent, dimensions and manifestations of homophobic hate speech and crime. under its work programme for 2011. The Agency will run a pilot project in 2011 which should be followed in 2012 by a fully fledged survey. Currently, such incidents are not covered by EU law explicitly. The Commission is funding projects under the Programme Fundamental Rights and Citizenship to promote actions to fight against homophobic and transphobic violence. We encourage civil society to participate in this process and to continue to report on these issues.

The Commission intends to adopt a Communication on Children's Rights at the end of 2010 to define a Strategy on the Rights of the Child for the period 2011-2014. To get the views from a wide range of stakeholders, the Commission has launched a public consultation through which contributions are sought from citizens, but also organisations, associations, bodies, institutions, and experts, who deal with the protection and promotion of children's rights at local, regional, national, European or international level. The consultation covers issues like child-friendly justice, violence against children, child poverty and child participation. The consultation is open until 20 August 2010. In parallel with this public consultation, the Commission is conducting a study to get feedback from children themselves through focus group discussions conducted across the EU.

The implementing of the Strategy will be key for relaunching the debate with national authorities in the Member States around these themes and the best practices to deal with them, aiming at positively influencing policy-making and the situation on the ground.