As racism is sometimes characterised by hostility towards a religion, the proposed directive adopted by the Commission in July 2008 aiming to set in place the principle of equal treatment between people, irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, is worthy of mention. The Council has pulled off the great coup of having still not adopted it to this day (congratulations to the successive Presidencies who have left this dossier to fester for 12 years!), much to the consternation of the Parliament (see EUROPE 12508/11), betraying the mentality of certain member states.
Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime is another addition to the 2000 Directive, in that it refers to the victims of trafficking in human beings and of crimes inspired by hatred (recital 57). The Commission itself admits that the implementation of this directive is still broadly unsatisfactory (see EUROPE 12513/11).
Finally, although the Roma are covered by the 2000 Directive, the Council felt it pertinent to adopt, on 9 December 2013, a recommendation on effective integration measures for the Roma in the member states. This text lays emphasis on education, employment, healthcare, housing, the fight against discrimination, the protection of Roma women and children and reducing poverty through social investments.
The Commission made a point of continuing to seek to benefit from public opinion, by funding surveys on racism. In December 2018, the last such survey, on anti-Semitism, was carried out (special Eurobarometer 484). This revealed that one in two European citizens (EU-28) believes that anti-Semitism is a problem in their country. This feeling is the highest in Sweden (81%), France (72%) and Germany (66%), yet particularly low in Estonia (6%). Has anti-Semitism increase in your country over the last five years? An average of respondents (39%) considered the situation had not changed; 36% felt that it had grown worse, including most Swedish (73%), Germans, Dutch, French, Danes and Britons, whilst the Romanians, Hungarians, Lithuanians and Latvians were more likely to take the view that anti-Semitism had decreased in their country; 15% of Europeans were unsure…
In special Eurobarometer 493 on discrimination in the European Union, published in October 2019, respondents were asked what the most widespread type of discrimination in their country was. On average (EU-28), being a Roma topped the list (61%), followed by ethnic origin (59%), skin colour (59%), sexual orientation (53%), being transgender (48%), religion or belief (47%). This means that the three forms of discrimination based on race are clearly seen as the most widespread. Being Roma was a particularly common response in Greece and Sweden (82%); as regards ethnic origin, this was particularly apparent in the Netherlands (76%), France (74%), Belgium (71%) and Sweden (70%); for skin colour, responses ranged from 80% in France to 22% in Latvia.
There are, however, some positive changes since a similar survey carried out in 2015. For instance, the number of people who feel at ease with a person of a different ethnic majority from the majority of the population has risen from 55% to 65%. A majority (61%) agreed that society could benefit from better integration of the Roma. However, are the efforts made to integrate the Roma effective? 19% believe that they are; this is better than in 2015 (12%), but still very low.
Finally, on 15 December 2019, the European Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) published its second survey on minorities and discrimination, entitled: ‘Being Black in the EU’. Its principal shortcoming is that it was carried out in only 12 countries of the EU, of which Malta was the only ‘new’ member state. It does, however, reveal that the rate of perception of racist harassment over the five years preceding the investigation was highest in Finland (63%), Luxembourg (52%), Ireland (51%), Germany (48%) and Italy (48%) and the lowest in the United Kingdom and Malta. In the 12 months running up to the investigation date, the rate of police checks considered to be ethnic profiling stood at 31% in Austria, compared to 4% in Finland. Austria is also the country in which the highest rate of racist physical attacks was reported. As for the feeling of having been the victim of racial discrimination when jobhunting, this was experienced by one in four respondents. (To be continued).
Renaud Denuit