Debate: Racial justice, non-discrimination and anti-racism in the EU
Date: THURSDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2022
Speaker: Helena Dalli
Language: EN

Discrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin is prohibited in the European Union. The European Commission is acting to address the high rates of experiences of racism at 29% in access to work, 23% in access to housing, 12% in access to education, and 22% in access to goods and services, and the worrying incidences of racist harassment at 24% and racist violence at 3% over a 12-month period.  This severely affects racialised communities and ethnic minorities across our Union. This is why our work programme for 2023 states that the Commission will continue its work to ensure effective protection against discrimination on grounds of racial or ethnic origin. This work is to be seen in the context of the implementation of the EU anti-racism action plan presented two years ago. This action plan takes a horizontal approach covering all different forms of racism and sets out measures that cover a comprehensive range of policy areas. The acknowledgement of the structural dimension of racism and the significance of intersectionality is at the base of the action plan.  In this context, the EU anti-racism action plan emphasises the importance of mainstreaming the fight against racism into all EU policies. The Commission’s Task Force on Equality plays a key role in this respect. The European Union has a strong legal acquis and mandate to fight racial and ethnic discrimination, with legislation covering all areas of life and addressing hate speech and hate crime.  Last year, the report on the application of the Racial Equality Directive concluded that Member States must provide greater attention to the implementation of the directive in relation to protection against victimisation and the application of effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions.  In this respect, we are preparing a proposal for a law strengthening equality bodies that will be presented before the end of this year. Amongst others, the new standards will cover the equality bodies’ mandate, their powers, independence and their resources, importantly.  Racist and xenophobic hate crime and hate speech are prohibited, as you know, under Union law. The framework decision on combating racism and xenophobia obliges Member States to criminalise public incitement to violence or hatred based on race, colour, religion, descent, or national or ethnic origin, and to ensure criminalisation of the racist and xenophobic bias motivation when committing a crime.  Extensive efforts have been made to ensure enforcement of legislation through targeted support to Member States and their law enforcement agencies. The Commission takes the proper transposition and implementation of this legislation, of course, seriously, through dialogue with Member States and where needed by initiating infringement proceedings.  In December 2021, the Commission continued pushing for legislative progress and proposed to extend the current list of EU crimes to hate speech and hate crime. The EU is deeply concerned with the rising rates of this form of crime. Yet legislation is, of course, only part of the answer and policy efforts need to complement it. Education is key for addressing racism.  The Commission is committed to supporting Member States in identifying good practices, lessons learned and success factors in building inclusive and equitable quality education. At its last two meetings this year, the Working Group on equality and values in education and training within the European Education Area, consisting of experts appointed by EU Member States, discussed different ways to address discrimination in and through education and training, including stereotypes, prejudice and hate speech.  The Erasmus+ programme already supports projects to raise awareness among young Europeans of the importance of respecting each other in our diversity. Since 2014, more than 2 800 projects, supported by the programme across Europe, have dealt directly with the fight against racism. The EU anti-racism action plan also foresees strengthened participation of civil society organisations working with racialised groups.  To this end, the Commission set up a permanent forum of anti-racism civil society organisations to participate in the consultative processes and support the Commission in the implementation of the action plan. Besides, the new Commission Coordinator for Anti-Racism also interacts with many other stakeholders like Member States, the European Parliament and academia to strengthen policy responses in the field of anti-racism.  Supplementing this work, the European Commission has adopted two specific approaches addressing the challenges faced by Roma and Jewish people. The adoption of the EU Roma strategic framework in 2020 and the unanimous adoption of the Council recommendation on Roma equality, inclusion and participation in 2021 marked important milestones in the fight against antigypsyism. They strongly encourage Member States to increase their efforts to combat antigypsyism. The Commission is planning to issue a first report assessing the national strategies for Roma equality, inclusion and participation this year.  In addition, with anti-Semitism worryingly on the rise, the Commission adopted the first ever EU strategy on combating anti-Semitism and fostering Jewish life, in October of last year. We are working to prevent all forms of anti-Semitism and combat violent extremism and terrorism targeting Jews and to foster a European society aware of Jewish life, culture and history, past and present and where Jews feel safe. Member States are invited to develop national action plans against racism and racial discrimination by the end of this year addressing their specific domestic realities while linking to the European mainstream strategies and action plans. To date, 16 Member States either have a stand-alone action plan or have integrated measures on combating racism as an integral part of more general national human rights action plans or other instruments and strategies. A report on the implementation of the national action plans against racism is due by the end of next year.  Equality data disaggregated by racial or ethnic origin are of great importance, of course, as we all know, and this in building effective policies to tackle discrimination. In this context, the Subgroup on Equality Data are made up of representatives from EU Member States and Norway also, the European Commission, Eurostat and FRA help Member States improve the collection and the use of equality data. It has produced key policy documents to step-up efforts such as the non-binding guidelines on improving the collection and use of ethnic and racial equality data presented at the roundtable on equality data held earlier this year. As to the Commission personnel policy, last year data on the diversity of the Commission staff was for the first time collected via a dedicated, voluntary and anonymous diversity and inclusion survey. Its results are paving the way for evidence-based internal policies and measures under the human resources strategy. A dedicated diversity and inclusion office has been created to oversee the development and implementation of all relevant actions and human resources.  And, finally, the citizens, equality, rights and values programme now has a budget of EUR 1.5 billion, more than double than in the previous cycle. It specifically focuses on the protection and promotion of Union values by providing support to civil society organisations active in this field. Racism and discrimination have no place in our Union of equality. We can and we must put an end to this scourge through joint and comprehensive action across the European Union.