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Responding to criticisms & discussions about the non-existence of European Union's human rights policy, the article claims that this policy exists although it has been developing inconsistently both at the level of the Union's internal affairs & at the level of its relations with third countries. The second key hypothesis of the article refers to the institutional implementation mechanisms of the Union's human rights policy which, according to the author, require new positioning & better coordination. The article firstly analyses the development of the human rights policy in the Union's internal affairs from the Stauder Case in 1969 to recent discussions on the legal force of the Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights & the accession of the Union to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights & Fundamental Freedoms. The second part of the article gives an overview of human rights policy development in the Union's external relations from the Fourth Lome Convention to the European Neighbourhood Policy. The paper ends with an analysis of the features common to the Union's human rights policy implementation mechanisms focusing on the role of the Commission, the Parliament & the Council of the Union. The article points to the lack of institutional harmonization using the European Instrument for Democracy & Human Rights as an example & sees in the establishment of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights the need to introduce changes in the implementation of the human rights policy. In a conclusion, the author identifies the complexity & fragmentation of the Union as a system on the one hand and, on the other hand, the omnipresence of human rights protection & promotion in the Union's public policies as the key factors encumbering the control over the human rights policy implementation & the cause of its perceived deficit. Adapted from the source document.