No place for hate: a Europe united against this scourge 

The Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) has recently published the Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee – Joint Communication to the European Parliament and the Council – No place for hatred: a Europe united against this scourge It contains several:

1.   Conclusions and recommendations

2.   General comments

3.   Specific comments

Of which we highlight, for the matter at hand:

1.10 Must making the work of the High-Level Group on Combating Racism more operational, Xenophobia and Other Forms of Intolerance. Efforts should be stepped up to develop training and capacity-building for social partners and civil society organisations in order to contribute to hate crime prevention and law enforcement training, improve hate crime registration and comprehensive data collection, and encourage victims to report hate crime. These efforts should be the subject of reports and benchmarking to determine progress at national level.

2.11 The EESC supports the full implementation of Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA on theto combat certain forms and manifestations of racism and xenophobia, which establishes a penal framework to ensure that serious manifestations of racism and xenophobia are punished. By the same, Member States are obliged to criminalise public incitement to violence or hatred on grounds of race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin and to take due account of racist motivation when prosecuting perpetrators.

2.14 The EESC supports the creation of a network of national law enforcement contact points specialised in criminal investigations of hate crime and hate speech, in order to improve coordination with initiatives at EU level, for example through the High Level Group on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Other Forms of Intolerance, cross-border support for research and exchange of good practices and tools. The Commission should step up its efforts to ensure that the contact points are adequately staffed, placed within the law enforcement framework and function effectively at national, regional and local level.

3.1 The work of the High-Level Group on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Other Forms of Intolerance should be made more operational. Efforts to develop law enforcement training and capacity building, improve hate crime registration and comprehensive data collection, and encourage victims to report hate crimes should be subject to reports and benchmarking to determine progress at national level.