Strasbourg, 05/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - Sarah Ludford (ALDE, UK), Vice-Chair of the European Parliament's Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup, has called on the EU Council to take swift action to combat race, religious and homophobic hate crime. “The EU has made important achievements to tackle discrimination against women, gay, ethnic and religious minority and older people as employees and consumers. However, it has so far failed to match this with European-wide measures to punish those responsible for violent hate crimes”, the MEP said on Tuesday. Ms Ludford deplores the fact that “legislation to combat race and religious hate crime has been stuck in the Council for the last five years despite overwhelming support from the Parliament. Meanwhile, violence on the grounds of race and religion has continued to grow. Governments must stop stalling!” She went on to sound a note of caution, saying: “It is difficult to explain to my constituents why EU legislation can protect them from discrimination in the workplace, but offers no such protection if they are physically or verbally attacked because of their beliefs or the way they look”. She went on to conclude: “We also urgently need measures to combat homophobic hate crime, not least in view of what seems to be state-supported homophobia in countries like Latvia and Poland. The EU must not be impotent in the face of these threats to human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe”.