EU Anti-racism Action plan 2020-2025
 The Action Plan is a key tool to truly advance in the fight against racism and xenophobia, and the
Commission is focused on how to effectively consult with all relevant stakeholders to ensure that we target
the needs and concerns on the ground.
 Racism needs to be addressed at all levels of governance and through different measures. This is why,
amongst others, the EU Anti-Racism action plan includes not only legislative measures but also addresses
structural racism, social attitudes, stereotypes or economic concerns.
 While countering racism and racial discrimination requires determined action across many fields, the protection
offered by the law is critical. We need to ensure both the effective enforcement of the legal framework and
that are no gaps in the legal protection.
 As racism can be combined with discrimination and hatred on other grounds, including religion or belief gender,
sexual orientation, age, and disability or against migrants, an intersectional perspective has been adopted
to deepen understanding of structural racism and make responses more effective.
 To this end, on 18 September 2020, the European Commission adopted an ambitious EU Anti-racism Action
Plan that sets out a series of measures in the course of 5 years. These measures cover a comprehensive
range of policy areas including, among other things, employment, digitalization, media, youth, education and
child protection. Measures also extend to EU’s external relations and Commission’s own personnel policy. The
aim is to mainstream the fight against racism into all EU policies.
 The European Commission strongly encourages Member States to develop and adopt national action
plans against racism and racial discrimination in 2022 with close involvement of civil society and
equality bodies. To support Member States in their efforts, on March 2021 the Commission established a
Subgroup of member States experts which elaborated common guiding principles required to produce
effective national action plans against racism and racial discrimination. The guidelines were officially
published in March 2022.

 The next task of the Subgroup includes further facilitating Member States in their efforts by drafting a
monitoring checklist for the implementation of the common guiding principles and contributing to the
creation of the online compendium of good practices by end 2022. Drafting indicators to monitor outcomes
following implementation of national action plans is foreseen for 2023.
 By the end of 2023, The Commission will report on the implementation of national action plans against
racism. The Commission is also taking measures to step up efforts to raise awareness about structural
racism. In November 2022, the Commission organised a workshop dedicated to structural racism. The aim is
to increase recognition of the phenomenon and better understand its manifestations and how to better
combat structural racism. The deliverable will be a conclusion paper published in early 2023.
 The EU Anti-racism Action Plan 2020-2025 also foresees strengthened participation of civil society
organisations working with racialized groups. In effect, the Commission has also 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.
 The report on the application of the Racial [and Employment] Equality Directive[s] published in March
2021 concluded that a closer monitoring by Member States of the implementation of the Directive[s] was
needed, in particular in relation to protection against victimization and the application of effective,
proportionate and dissuasive sanctions. As a follow-up of the ARAP and the implementation report, the
Commission is assessing gaps in the protection against discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin. A
study on possible gaps was kicked-off on 3 December 2021 and will run until May 2022.
 National equality bodies across Europe are essential for ensuring that individuals and groups facing
discrimination can enjoy their rights in full. The current Commission initiative aims at adopting binding
legislation on standards for equality bodies by the end of 2022. The standards would cover, among
others, the equality bodies’ mandate, their powers, independence and their resources.
 In February 2018, the EU High Level Group on Non-discrimination, Equality and Diversity itself set up the
Subgroup on Equality Data to help Member States improve the collection and use of equality data. Building
on FRA’s wide-ranging expertise, the Subgroup produced a number of key policy documents to step up the
collection of equality data. In 2021, the Commission published one of the first deliverables of the Action Plan
developed by the said Subgroup, the Guidance note on the collection and use of equality data based on
racial or ethnic origin in order to capture both subjective experiences of discrimination and victimisation and
structural aspects of racism and racial discrimination in a harmonised way.
 New actions are also implemented under the Commission’s mandate to promote diversity and ensure a
discrimination-free and an inclusive workplace for all people, forming of a wider set of measures in the
forthcoming human resources strategy that will shape the modernisation of the Commission as a public
administration. A Diversity and Inclusion Office has been created within the Directorate-General for Human
Resources and Security to oversee the development and implementation of all relevant actions.

GLOSSARY/LINKS
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EU anti-racism action plan 2020-2025
The Commission's Coordinator on combating racism (europa.eu)
Common guiding principles for national action plans against racism and racial discrimination
Permanent Anti-racism Civil Society Forum
Guidance note on the collection and use of equality data based on racial or ethnic origin
Equality data collection (europa.eu)