Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-03-Speech-3-294"
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"en.20020703.9.3-294"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the fight against racism and xenophobia is not a new concern of our institutions. On numerous occasions, the debates in our Assembly have focused on combating racism. Today we have a European monitoring centre as well as Article 13 of the Treaty, which enshrines the power of the Union to take action to combat discrimination.
The European countries also have national anti-racism legislation. In practice, however, racial discrimination has never before been such an acute problem. Let me cite in evidence the report produced by the European Monitoring Centre for Racism and Xenophobia, which testifies to the upsurge in racism and xenophobia, including ‘Islamophobia’, a phenomenon reflected in the alarming rise of the extreme right.
The Council’s proposal on combating racism and xenophobia, which we are examining here, is designed to strengthen and supplement the existing legal framework. It is highly regrettable, however, to discover once again that Community responsibility for defining and penalising racist and xenophobic crimes is to be based on the lowest common denominator. If there is no common definition of the recognised offences, how will it be possible to guarantee that the same efforts will be made to combat racism and xenophobia in each of the Member States? One might well ask whether the aim of this proposal is really to combat racism or whether it is merely a way of salving our consciences. This reluctance to take the bull by the horns is tantamount to offering racists the right to continue serving the ends of the extreme right or engaging in populism and rabble-rousing sophistry for electoral purposes and to do so with impunity. Let us not forget that the purpose of combating racism is not only to protect foreigners but also to defend the values of our democracies, human rights and fundamental freedoms, which form the bedrock on which we are building the European Union.
Besides, why exclude the Member States from the implementation of this Decision when we know for a fact that institutional racism exists and that it must be combated with the utmost vigour? This institutional racism, which manifests itself in a whole host of social, economic, professional, cultural and political exclusion mechanisms, is based on ethnic or religious considerations or sometimes on a system of national preference, which is now giving way to European preference. If racism is to be combated more effectively on a day-to-day basis, it is not enough to adopt legislative acts. We are convinced that granting equal rights, including political rights, to all citizens of the Union, whatever their nationality, is the only way to combat every form of racism, because it establishes a balance of political power that is rooted in the exercise of citizenship. Unfortunately, the proposed framework decision does not go far enough in this direction. Nevertheless, we owe it to ourselves to support every initiative that puts human dignity at the heart of the process of building the Union, and combating racism is an integral part of that process."@en1
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