Work has begun on the initiative of the European Commission to extend the EU list of crimes to include hate crimes and hate speech related to race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. On Tuesday 23 February, the institution opened a public consultation on its roadmap on this topic.
This initiative had been put forward as a priority by the President of the Commission herself (see EUROPE 12561/3) and then reaffirmed within the framework of the strategy for equality for LGBTI people (see EUROPE 12600/23).
As an initial step, the Commission intends to adopt a ‘Communication to the European Parliament and the EU Council’ at the end of 2021. This is so that a decision can be obtained from the EU Council identifying hate speech and hate crimes as “areas of crime”, as defined in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.
Once this EU Council decision is adopted, the Commission will, as a second step, be in a position to propose a directive harmonising the definition of hate speech and hate crimes.
This, they believe, will complement the implementation of the EU Council Framework Decision on combating racism and xenophobia.
This legislation – the implementation of which is, moreover, still proving to be lacking (see EUROPE 12661/15) – requires Member States to criminalise public incitement to violence and hatred based on race, colour, religion or origin, but does not extend it to cover gender or sexual orientation. Furthermore, it does not take into account the dissemination of illegal hate speech online.
It is therefore up to the individual Member States to put in place a penal response regarding these various points. Legal protection in this area, therefore, varies considerably across the EU, says the European Commission.
At present, 21 Member States have expressly included sexual orientation in legislation on hate speech and/or hate crimes as an aggravating factor, and 12 of them also include gender identity. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)