Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-15-Speech-3-163"
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"Turning now to the Ludford report, I very much welcome the opportunity to respond to Parliament’s report on racism and xenophobia. The Union’s commitment to supporting fundamental rights and fighting discrimination was made very clear in the Amsterdam Treaty and this is, for me, a crucial development of the European message.
Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union introduces new powers to react in case of serious and persistent breaches of fundamental rights by a Member State. Article 13 of the EC Treaty provides for measures to combat discrimination on the grounds of sex, religion or belief, disability, age, sexual orientation and – of greatest relevance to us today in this debate – racial or ethnic origin in which (to clarify the question raised by Mr Brie) we include the fight against antisemitism.
Many forces came together to reach agreement on Article 13 in the last Intergovernmental Conference, as the representative of the Council has already reminded us, and the Commission is determined to honour the Treaty commitment to a discrimination-free society. That is why we put forward our package of proposals to fight discrimination only two months after taking office last year.
My message today, in the follow-up to the Ludford report, is that we still hope that Parliament will give priority to giving its opinion on this package so that we can adopt the two directives and the action plan by the end of this year. But besides that, I think that in many quarters there is growing recognition of the need for European action against racism. That is why in the Article 13 proposals we are able to make greater progress, I believe, on racial discrimination than on the other matters. We felt that it was politically possible. We sincerely hope that the facts will not deny our hope.
As you know, the package of proposals that the Commission has put forward consists of two directives and an action programme. The two draft directives provide a legislative framework for legally enforceable rights including provisions on a number of key issues such as protection against harassment, scope for positive action, appropriate remedies and enforcement measures. The proposed directives are complemented by a proposal for an action programme. We know that, to combat discrimination, practical action is needed to reach out to people and help change discriminatory attitudes and behaviour on the ground. Getting the Member States to adopt the anti-discrimination package is now our top priority.
Although it is important, the Article 13 package is only part of an on-going process to develop new ways of tackling racial discrimination. The Union is committed to mainstreaming the fight against discrimination on the basis of race and ethnic origin, and we recently organised a major conference on this issue. We intend to keep pushing the process forward, through the Structural Funds, the Research Framework Programme, the European Employment Strategy, the new EQUAL Initiative and the new Social Action Programme which we hope to adopt in the summer. We intend to use all these instruments to fight discrimination and, as you know, work has also started on the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Parliament has a key role to play in this regard. It is vital for the Commission that the Parliament contributes to the growing momentum surrounding these proposals by delivering its opinions on the package as soon as possible, and by participating fully in the work of drafting the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
I will conclude as I have started: the Charter will represent the high priority that the Union as a whole accords to the fight against racism and discrimination and to protection of human rights. I sincerely hope that, during our debate on this issue next year, we will be congratulating ourselves on achieving, with the Charter, a new tool to fight against racism and xenophobia in the Union."@en1
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