Brussels, 23/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - The EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) of Vienna presented its annual report for 2005 to the European Parliament in Brussels on 23 November. The report examined cases of discrimination in employment, housing and education, as well as data on racist crimes and all the measures taken to fight them. It warns that gaps in data collection may mean that serious cases of discrimination are still going overlooked in important areas, and presents examples of best practice to fight the exclusion of minorities.
Presenting the report to the press, Beate Winkler, director of the Monitoring Centre, stressed that the EU's new anti-discrimination legislation has allowed some positive initiatives to see the light of day. "Most Member States have transposed this legislation quickly enough, but others have not yet done so", said Ms Winkler, adding: "our report takes note of progress made, but (...) we must respect all members of our society". "It is time for decisions to be made", said Beate Winkler. "We must avoid victims of racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia living parallel lives", member of the European Parliament Stavros Lambrinidis told the press. The Greek Socialist stressed the role of the media, without which "the policies which we need to fight against these plagues may never become a reality", and which provided many of the data contained within the report of the EUMC. "We must insist upon statistics at European level, which may be compiled firstly at national level", he said.
Answering questions from journalists, Beate Winkler spoke of the following subjects: (1) Islamophobia: "the situation has got worse since the assassination of Dutch film maker Theo Van Gogh and the attacks in London", said Ms Winkler, pointing out that the Heads of State and Government of the EU felt that it is "unacceptable to draw comparisons" on this; (2) violence in the French suburbs: "signs had already appeared at local and regional levels". As for the fact that 80% of the people behind these troubles were young unemployed people, Ms Winkler said: "if we do not give the young people positive prospects, they will start to lead double lives and fall victim to social fractures, which can lead to violence. We must give young people prospects of a job, of housing, education"; (3) anti-Semitism: "it is unacceptable", said Beate Winkler, pointing out that in France, for example, there is "there is a certain amount of resistance the idea of creating a monitoring committee" on this issue. However, she feels that such a committee would help to improve the management of the situation. Ms Winkler announced that the EUMC would publish a report on 2006 on major trends in recent years on the subject; (4) the usefulness of the Vienna monitoring Centre: "If we didn't exist, it would be perfect! (...). However, anti-Semitism and xenophobia are still around", said Ms Winkler, adding: "we want to get a much clearer idea of what is going on on the ground, and analyse the negative and positive elements so that we can better implement strategies. Our added value is related to the debate we stimulate in and with the Member States"; (5) link between the EUMC and the Fundamental Rights Agency proposed by the European Commission: "the agency will add to our work, which is very delicate. We are called upon to play a highly constructive role, and the role of our monitoring centre is being discussed at the EP"; (6) wearing scarves: "in France, the objective was to protect the Muslim woman and take account of secularity. There is no Islamophobia in France, which is not the case in other countries", said Ms Winkler. Stavros Lambrinidis said that it was "encouraging that the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan had voiced his concern about this".
Reacting in a declaration to the presentation of the report, MEP Sarah Ludford (ALDE, United Kingdom) stressed that "the lack of implementation of European directives on racial equality in the Member States is of deep concern. This problem must be raised by the presidents of the European Parliament and the Commission at the European Council of December". Ms Ludford also voiced her hopes for progress in taking account of ethnic discrimination in employment, housing, education and other fields, otherwise "it is hard to identify areas in which there should be less discrimination".