EU anti-racist legislation is at stake

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday March 28, 2003 15:42 by EU

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EU antiracist legislation is at stake

info at http://www.enar-eu.org/

EUROPEAN NETWORK AGAINST RACISM
PRESS RELEASE
Brussels, 25 March 2003

RACIST AND XENOPHOBIC BEHAVIOURS NOT TO BE CONSIDERED "PARTICULARLY
SERIOUS CRIME"?

The European Network Against Racism, a network of over 600 organisations combating racism and promoting equal treatment, is deeply concerned that the Preliminary Draft of a Constitutional Treaty drawn up by the European Convention, in its articles on an "area of freedom, security and justice", currently excludes the acquis communautaire on the prevention and combating of racism and xenophobia.

The current article 29 TEU states "Without prejudice to the powers of the European Community, the Union's objective shall be to provide citizens with a high level of safety within an area of freedom, security and justice by developing common action among the Member States in the fields of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters and by preventing and combating racism and xenophobia...."

In contrast, the current proposal for the first 23 articles of Part II of the Constitution not only drops this specific reference to the prevention and combating of racism and xenophobia, but also explicitly states that such a reference is superfluous since we now have Article 13 TEC and therefore racist and xenophobic behaviours are not to be considered "particularly serious crime with cross-border dimensions". This contradicts not only the reality but a number of previous declarations and statements of the Council, Commission and Parliament as well.

ENAR deplores this approach because the prevention and combating of racism and xenophobia is a fundamental prerequisite to obtaining an area of freedom, security and justice for all. Also, it should be kept in mind that fight against discrimination, although closely related, is fundamentally different from prevention and combating of racism and xenophobia; both deserve an appropriate but distinct approach. Finally, one should not forget that one of the raisons d'être for unifying Europe after the Second World War was precisely to prevent crimes like those committed by the genocidal Nazi regime; prevention and combating of racism and xenophobia forms also therefore an integral part of the acquis communautaire.

For further comments, ENAR can be reached at:
István Ertl, ENAR Information Officer
43 rue de la Charité, B-1210 Bruxelles
Phone: 32 (0)2 229 35 71
fax: 32 (0)2 229 35 75
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.enar-eu.org