Strasbourg, 16/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, Members of the European Parliament adopted a resolution regretting the rise of racist, xenophobic and homophobic violence in Europe and regretting that the Council has been unable to adopt the 2001 Council Framework Decision on combatting racism and xenophobia. In adoption a joint resolution from the PES, ALDE, Greens and GUE/NGL by 301 to 161 with 102 abstentions, the EP strongly condemned all racist attacks, listing some of the terrible tragic attacks carried out this year, including the premeditated murder of a white Belgian child and her black nurse in Antwerp by a young Far Right Belgian man and the anti-Semitic murder of Ilan Halimi in France. The EP explained that several Member States, including Belgium, France, Germany and Poland, have recently been the scene of racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic violence and/or murder, while other forms of racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and homophobia persist both in the EU and beyond. The EP wants the EU to take measures to tackle the problem of the Polish League of Families being part of the Polish government, because League of Families leaders encourage hatred and violence among citizens. the EP urges all Member States to at least foresee the option of withdrawing all public funding from political parties failing to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law, as defined in the European Convention of Human Rights and the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, and urges Member States which already have this option to immediately make use of it. The European Parliament also encourages Member States to launch campaigns and projects at all levels and across all sectors, particularly in the media and teaching establishments, to promote cultural diversity as a valuable source of economic dynamism, sexual equality, anti-discrimination, tolerance, dialogue and integration. The MEPs point out that 2007 will be the European Year of Equality for All, and 2008 will be the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. Following the banning of Gay Pride in Moscow on 27 May, EU representatives are urged to raise the pressing question of human rights in Russia at the upcoming G8 Summit, particularly the right to hold peaceful demonstrations.
The European Parliament 'deplores that fact that the Council has been unable to adopt the 2001 Council Framework Decision on combatting racism and xenophobia… and urgently calls on the future Finnish Presidency of the Council to restart the work on it, and on the Council to reach an agreement on explicitly extending it to homophobic, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and other types of offences motivated by phobia or hatred based on ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, religion or other irrational grounds.' The Member States are urged to introduce tighter measures in criminal law to lead to an approximation of sentencing for crimes of this type. The Member States are also asked to properly implement anti-discrimination directives, failing which they may be taken to the European Court of Justice. The MEPs want the Commission to introduce new draft legislation within the next twelve months covering all types of discrimination mentioned in Article 13 of the EC Treaty and having the same scope of application as Directive 2000/43/EC.
During the debate, Commissioner Vladimir Spidla urged the Council to adopt the 2001 Framework Directive 'without watering it down'. He said the Commission hoped the seminar to be held on 20 to 22 June with the Austrian Presidency would allow the issue to be raised at the Council under the Finnish Presidency. The President of the PES Group, Martin Schulz, said that when he joined the EP twelve years ago, he would not have thought it possible that such a debate would be needed again, and the horrifying fact it was again necessary 'should set alarm bells ringing'. Describing the resolution as a balanced compromise, French EPP-ED MEP Patrick Gaubert explaining why the EPP-ED group had refused to sign the joint resolution, saying it was unacceptable to confuse individual acts of violence in Member States combatting racism and homophobia with the positions openly taken by some governments. Jean Lambert (Green, UK) urged the EP to look at what was really going on and name names among Member States. Vittorio Emanuele Agnoletto (GUE/NGL, Italy) said Poland should realise that the GUE/NGL would not hesitate to call for political sanctions against Poland for violating Article 7 of the EU Treaty and the fundamental democratic principles of the EU if violent attacks continued in Poland.