Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-12-Speech-3-248"
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"en.20071212.28.3-248"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, first of all let me express my strong personal concerns about the rise in activities in Europe which have to be attributed to violent and extremist groups and organisations.
It is not just the physical act, but also concrete incitement, the dissemination of hatred, those messages that frankly cannot be confused with freedom of expression which is a sacred right for all of us. Here, we are speaking of concrete incitement to act, to commit violence. That framework decision was agreed by the Member States last April. Think of those awful manifestations of racism: at sports events, during football matches where people take the opportunity to shout neo-Nazi slogans, those are the kinds of act that the framework decision – which we genuinely wanted and which we agreed with the German Presidency – will punish. I say will punish, using the future, as unfortunately, and this is an appeal to your sensibility, between April and now the reservations of the national parliaments of some Member States have not been withdrawn with the result that the procedure leading to the entry into force of this European law to punish racism and xenophobia has been blocked.
I say this with absolute respect for the national parliaments; however, as the government holding the presidency of the Council of Ministers has given its agreement, I believe that it must take steps with its own parliament, so that its reservation is withdrawn as soon as possible, and we can finally ensure that the framework decision comes into force after three and a half years of lengthy discussion.
In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, we already have legislation in other sectors which punishes discrimination based on race and ethnicity, and that legislation will undoubtedly be respected with the supervision, if I may put it that way, of the European Commission which is responsible for ensuring compliance with European law. I would point out, for instance, the recent directive on ‘borderless’ audiovisual services which very clearly establishes, from its entry into force, that audiovisual services must not contain any incitement to hatred on grounds of sexual orientation, race, religion or nationality.
It is precisely to achieve all that that policing measures are not enough, criminal law is not enough, prosecutions are not enough: what is needed is a deep-seated culture of individual rights, of value for the human person! What we said this morning when we were celebrating the European Charter of Fundamental Rights! I believe that this is one of the policies, at a time when we are preparing to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon, through which Europe can offer the world a lesson on the ways in which these hateful crimes against the human person can be eradicated.
In my view, therefore, today’s debate is extremely important, because it is not just extremism which leads to terrorist acts – extremism about which we have talked on many occasions in this House – but also those activities and developments which are more properly to be seen as racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, nationalist extremism, Islamophobia, all those forms of intolerance which, as I said, are worryingly common in Europe, and which, in my view, are absolutely incompatible with and run entirely counter to the values of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights which we proclaimed this morning. There can be no doubt that extremism, by its very nature, is divisive and leads to violence.
That is why the first goal, in my view, is a political goal. That will obviously lead me to mention measures which have more to do with security and policing; however, faced with the problem of extremism and its origins, we need once again to promote a European Union which is ever closer to citizens and therefore more able to pass on messages of tolerance, solidarity and respect for the Charter which, as of today, is one of the cornerstones binding on Member States and on citizens.
I believe that there can never be any justification for extremism; while we have said that many times about terrorism, we also need to say it about racism, for instance, and about xenophobia. However, we also have to explore the deep-seated origins of extremism and violence. We have a duty to do so, because we have a duty to introduce European policy measures that can help not just to counter but also to prevent and eradicate extremist developments and activities.
I should like to cite a few examples which, in my opinion, show that a European policy may be genuinely useful and more useful, if I may say so, than a policy which is solely national. From the point of view of citizens’ participation in the political life of Europe, it is very important for that programme – and it is not by chance that the European Commission is financing such a programme on fundamental rights and citizenship – to contain policies and measures encouraging citizens to play more of a role in political life, in the life of the institutions, and therefore, for instance, in events such as the European elections. 2009 offers us a golden opportunity to foster a debate that leads to a large turnout to vote reflecting positive participation in the life of the institutions.
It is nevertheless clear that the other policy measure that we are expecting from Europe and that Europe is keen to promote involves education, especially for the younger generations. In my view, that – a policy to keep the memories of past tragedies alive in people’s minds and to do so among today’s younger generations, among students and among young people, even the very young – is also extremely important. For instance, all the programmes which we support and which I believe should be further encouraged, programmes which keep alive the memory of the victims of all the dictatorships, of all the totalitarian regimes that have devastated Europe in the past, are, in my view, tools that can be put to good use in eradicating extremism and racism; from the history of the concentration camps, for instance, we can draw a lesson for today’s young people so that tragedies of that kind never happen again, not just in Europe but in any part of the world.
Then there is another policy measure that I believe we can and must bear in mind: those measures that more generally promote tolerance and dialogue between different cultures and obviously between different religions. We have two major opportunities, one this year, which is the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All – and we plan to review the initiatives that have taken place during the year – and one next year in 2008, which is the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, of dialogue between different cultures and between civilisations. In my view, the 2007 review and the 2008 programme offer a golden opportunity to make people and, I would stress again, younger people, more aware of a spirit of dialogue which enriches, a dialogue through which everyone can grow together.
It is undoubtedly important to keep the public aware of the importance of promoting rights and eradicating extremism, violence and intolerance. Here, the European Agency for Fundamental Rights has a role to play, which is what we wanted and what this House strongly supported; just as the Vienna monitoring centre on racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism has in the past been an instrument for a very important sector, the fight against anti-Semitism, the Agency for Fundamental Rights will also be an instrument. The Agency, as the main protagonist in this field, will have a very important role to play. There, as you know, we are preparing the multi-annual framework which we are discussing in close cooperation with Mr Cashman, and we take the view that the Agency’s multi-annual planning framework will provide us with useful instruments for our common action to prevent extremism.
Over and above that, we obviously have to react: while those are all important prevention policies, we also need to react. I fought personally, in the Council of Ministers as well, for a European law – and we reached agreement on this last April – for a European law under which acts motivated by racism and xenophobia can be punished and those committing such acts are punished in the same way in any country of the European Union."@en1
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