Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2015-10-14-Speech-1-278-000"
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"en.20151014.27.1-278-000"2
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"Madam President, this oral question, which I am honoured to present on behalf of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, finds its origin in the public hearing which took place on 29 June 2015. The question is very simple and is in two parts: firstly to ask the Commission to make specific policy commitments and enforcement plans to fight hate speech and discrimination; and, secondly, to ask the Commission to adopt national strategies with clear goals to address anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other forms of racism, similar to the national Roma integration strategies that we already have in place in our community.
Behind these questions are some profound truths. We have a very complex situation: in dealing with anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and indeed other forms of hate, we are dealing with some of the oldest forms of hatred on our continent. To deal with such issues and to think that they are simplistic – or indeed that in each Member State they will be the same – is, of course, naive. But equally, to think that – as a European Union, a union of values – we cannot take action against such a phenomenon would be naive and wrong.
So these questions are really asking the Commission to update its action to ensure that we are ready for the new forms of expression of hatred, of anti—Semitism and Islamophobia, which we see today. We are not being naive in thinking that there are always common denominators, but we do know that something has changed. No longer are these attacks anecdotal. Our Fundamental Rights Agency gives us the statistics. They tell us, for example, that 46% have experienced abuse, and 33% have experienced abuse if they are Jewish, in the European Union. We have one in three Muslims, according to the Fundamental Rights Agency in a 2009 survey, experiencing discrimination in a 12—month period.
These are snapshot statistics but we know that no longer do we have anecdotal statistics. We know that our police forces and our enforcement agencies in Member States are doing their job so that we can now have proper statistics. What do they tell us? They tell us a very simple truth: that, while we say we are taking action on the basis of the Council framework decision of 2008, we are not doing it in every Member State. The Race Equality Directive of 1999, which was supposed to have been implemented across the European Union, remains untransposed and unimplemented. We have the tools to deal with racism. We have the tools here in the European Union but, sadly, not all Member States have used those tools.
In the end, each Member State will have its own issues and its own forms of expression in terms of how to deal with discrimination. Again, no-one is being so naive as to say that each situation is the same. But I repeat that there are two important points here. One is that we must deal with the political messages at European level – we must deal with education at European level and we must send out clear messages from this Parliament – and also we must deal with the practicalities.
Yesterday, in my own Member State, a young Muslim woman was doused in alcohol on a train while people sat watching. For that victim it was a very painful situation, but let me say, too, that for the people who were watching it was also a very bad situation. That is why, in my country, there are exemplary sentences for those who commit a crime with racial motivation. The reasoning is that such crimes have an extra effect on society, and that is why you have such exemplary sentences. There is a bigger effect on society through anti—Semitism and Islamophobia, and it is a matter of opinion in this Chamber – and many will have their opinions – as to what has happened in the recent refugee crisis and as to the responsibilities we all have to assume. These things will be matters of opinion, but what is important is that we realise we have to take action.
We have the tools in the European Union. We see ourselves as a union of values. We will not always interfere in what Member States do in terms of taking action, but we must send the political messages, we must educate and, most of all, we must require Member States to take action when they are ready. We have the tools at European Union level to do that. We have not taken that action, and Member States must now act and the Commission must now act."@en1
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