The Agency is in a key position to give a voice to those people across the European Union who are most frequently the target of discrimination and hatred. Many of them are at the margins of our society. But the rights of those at the very centre of our society are also under threat, for example through the tools of the digital age which, in spite of their huge advantages, also open the door to online hate speech and unbridled state surveillance, both of which we have seen too often recently.

Over the last 10 years, we have given a voice to our primary clients, the rights holders living in Europe. We have achieved much in these 10 years, which I think deserves proper credit. We have delivered badly needed data, which otherwise would not be available to the policy makers who make the laws that shape our lives.