In adopting
the initiative report by Mrs Martine ROURE (PES, FR) on the progress
of the negotiations concerning the framework decision on combating racism and
xenophobia, the European Parliament did not follow the position agreed on by
the committee responsible and approved a series of compromise amendments
tabled by the PES, EPP-ED, ADLE, Greens/ALE, GUE/NGL.
To recall,
this framework decision concerns combating certain forms and expressions of
racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law has been blocked by the
Council since 2005. The German Presidency announced in January 2007 that this
issue would take priority. MEPs drafted a first initiative report covering
recommendations to be included into the framework decision by the Council.
However, before
this report arrived at Plenary, the Justice and Home Affairs Council on the
19 April 2007 reached an informal political agreement and amended the initial
text on which the Parliament was consulted on in 2002 (refer to CNS/2001/0270).
The House
decided to amend its approach and proposed an amended version of the initiative
report by associating the main European Parliament political groups.
Following the publication of the final text, the Parliament shall draft a
second consultation report on the draft framework decision.
In view of the
proposal for a framework decision on which a political agreement was reached
at the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting of 19 April 2007, the
Parliament addresses the following recommendations to the Council:
- send out a
strong political message in support of a citizens" Europe and provide
a high level of protection for fundamental rights by finalising
the text as soon as possible and ensuring that it is publicised;
- make
education towards peace, non-violence and respect for fundamental
rights, and an interfaith and intercultural dialogue at EU level, the
main instruments of the fight against racism and xenophobia;
- ensure that
the framework decision contributes European added value over and
above the Joint Action;
- together
with the Commission, apply more actively existing anti-discrimination
and anti-racist legislation and Treaty provisions, and monitor closely
the future transposition and implementation of the framework decision in
each Member State, and report back to Parliament; ensure that the
Commission starts infringement proceedings against those Member States
which fail to implement the legislation;
- recognise
that some Member States have criminalised the denial or flagrant
trivialisation of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes;
- insert in
the final text of the framework decision the definition of racist and
xenophobic offences which is already
included in the above-mentioned Commission proposal pursuant to which
"directing, supporting or participating in the activities of a
racist or xenophobic group with the intention of contributing to the
organisation's criminal activities" would be punishable as a
criminal offence;
- exclude the
notion of a public order offence, since it is not based on a precise
definition of that concept, and define what constitutes threatening,
abusive or insulting conduct which Member States may decide is or is not
punishable;
- incorporate
a non-regression clause such as the one contained in Article 6 of
Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle
of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic
origin, in order to ensure that the implementation of the framework
decision does not lead to a weakening of existing forms of protection;
- ensure that
implementation of the framework decision will not undermine any obligation
imposed pursuant to the above-mentioned International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination;
- set up,
under the aegis of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, a
unit for the purpose of monitoring similar offences in the Member
States, its task being to record, store and classify data;
- ensure that
the framework decision is satisfactorily implemented by allowing the
Commission report to take account of the opinions of the Fundamental
Rights Agency and the non-governmental organisations concerned;
- introduce a
comprehensive legal framework enabling discrimination to be combated in
all its forms, through the swift adoption of a comprehensive directive
on the fight against discrimination (pursuant to Article 13 of the
Treaty) which should provide for effective, proportionate and deterrent
penal sanctions for all forms of discrimination, as well as
administrative sanctions, rehabilitative sanctions such as mandatory
education and community service, or fines, which, in the case of public
figures and representatives of the authorities, should be more severe
owing to the fact that their status should be considered to be an
aggravating circumstance;
- take into
account the fact that there should be no hierarchy among the grounds for
discrimination and include within the scope of criminal liability hate
crimes and violent crimes based on those grounds or a combination of
those grounds (multiple discrimination);
- undertake to
carry out, within no more than three years after the time limit for
transposition of the framework decision, a revision of the provisions of
the framework decision, with the aim of reducing the scope of
derogations.