WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1465/96 by Abdelkader MOHAMED ALI to the Council. Setting up of a monitoring unit for racism and xenophobia
Date: 1996-05-31
Institutions: European Parliament, MOHAMED ALI
Subjects: European Union, exchange of information, feasibility study, institutional cooperation, racism, report













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91996E1465

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1465/96 by Abdelkader MOHAMED ALI to the Council. Setting up of a monitoring unit for racism and xenophobia  


Official Journal C 385 , 19/12/1996 P. 0016 





WRITTEN QUESTION P-1465/96 by Abdelkader Mohamed Ali (GUE/NGL) to the Council (31 May 1996)Subject: Setting up of a monitoring unit for racism and xenophobiaOn Saturday, 4 May 1996, Mohammed Khouas was shot by two skinheads in Sens, France. Regrettably, gratuitously violent nature of such racist acts such as this are increasingly common in the European Union.The European Parliament was consulted recently on the proposal for a Council decision to declare 1997 European Year against Racism and pronounced itself in favour of the entire idea, in particular the setting up of a monitoring unit on racism and xenophobia, as it was convinced that such a unit would help combat more effectively this threat to peaceful co-existence in our society.However, does the Council consider the annual report and other publications of the monitoring unit to constitute an adequate instrument for combating racism and xenophobia more effectively?How and to what extent can the findings of the unit influence the policies of local authorities, national governments and the Union itself?Reply (29 October 1996)1. At the request of the European Council, the Consultative Commission on Racism and Xenophobia drew up a report including over one hundred recommendations for measures to be taken within the European Union together with a feasibility study on a European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. The report was presented to the European Council in Cannes on 26 and 27 June 1995; the study was submitted to the European Council at its meeting in Florence on 21 and 22 June 1996. The European Council reaffirmed the Union's determination to combat racism and xenophobia with the utmost resolve; it approved the principle underlying the establishment of a European Monitoring Centre. It asked the Council to examine the legal and budgetary conditions of the future Monitoring Centre as well as the links between the latter and the Council of Europe and to mandate the Consultative Commission on Racism and Xenophobia to continue its work until the Monitoring Centre was set up.2. In its study the Consultative Commission made proposals concerning a draft statute for a future centre: the Centre's main purpose should be to exercise vigilance in the face of the manifestations of racism and xenophobia, including anti-semitism, within the Union, to analyze the dangers which the resurgence of these phenomena pose for the Union and to provide the Union's Institutions and the Member States with objective and reliable date, comparable at European level, together with recommendations, so that the necessary policies to combat them can be drawn up and implemented. Thus, the Centre will be an institution that stimulates the involvement of civil-society organizations and acts in cooperation with the Community Institutions, the Member States of the Union, non-governmental organizations, other international bodies and persons with responsibilities in the field of combating racism and xenophobia.3. As stated above, the proposals of the Consultative Commission are now examined by the Council.