Criminalizing Xenophobia

Warning of a strong increase in racist acts across the European Union, EU lawmakers on Monday urged the bloc's governments to adopt new rules to criminalize racism and xenophobia.

Liberal French MEP Jean-Marie Cavada said establishing common standards in criminalizing racism and xenophobia "is a subject the EU has to deal with quickly."

Germany, which currently runs the agenda-setting EU presidency, wants to use its term at the bloc's helm to push through new rules that would criminalize racist declarations that are an incitement to violence against a specific person or group.

"Europe has to send a strong political signal that it is in favor of human rights," French Socialist MEP Martine Roure told reporters.

A symbolic nature

While any new rules should not restrict the freedom of expression, EU member states should be open-minded to act against any form of racism, lawmakers said.

However, they said that the planned new rules would be more of symbolic nature as the differences in national legal systems had to be respected.

Germany views a common EU law as a moral obligation but countries like Britain, Italy and Denmark have resisted common rules as a violation of civil liberties.

Criminalizing Holocaust denial

The MEPs also backed a German proposal to push through new rules that would make denying the Holocaust a crime in the EU.

While being unanimous in their condemnation of those who deny the Holocaust, EU leaders are split over whether to criminalize such acts.

Citing its particular historic responsibility due to its Nazi past, Germany has said it wants EU member states to adopt the proposed legislation as soon as possible.

A German blueprint says that racist declarations or Holocaust denial would not be prosecuted if they were expressed in a way that did not incite hatred against an individual or group of people.

Breaching freedoms

EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini has welcomed the German proposal, saying that while freedom of expression was part of Europe's values and traditions, its democratic societies also allowed to fight racist speech through penal law.

However, Frattini has also said that it should be up to national governments to decide on the length of jail sentences for people inciting racism and xenophobia.

Two years ago, Luxembourg tried to use its EU presidency to push through legislation to unify legal standards for Holocaust denial but was blocked by Italy on the grounds that the proposed rules breached freedom of speech.

Laws against denying the Holocaust already exist in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Spain.