The European Commission and the High Representative for EU’s foreign affairs and security policy adopted a Communication on Wednesday with a call for action to all Europeans to stand up against hatred and speak up for tolerance and respect.
“We have seen scenes we hoped to never see again – attacks on the Jewish community,” said Vera Jourova, Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency, when presenting the Communication.
“We have seen David stars as a mark of hatred on buildings. Every person who knows the history of the last century must feel the danger behind such images, reminiscent of the darkest chapter of European history.”
“I am not standing here today and telling all this just due to the hatred against Jews,” Jourova added. “We need to combat exactly the same way anti-Muslim hatred or all forms of hatred and racism. It is a fight against this basic human emotion that can activate devastating events which history has written.”
Some EU member states are experiencing an alarming increase in hate speech and hate crime and evidence shows that Jewish and Muslim communities are particularly affected. The immediate cause is the Israel-Hamas war which was sparked by Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October.
“Tragically, history repeats itself,” commented Josep Borrell, the High Representative. “Conflicts and disinformation worldwide are sowing the seeds of hatred.” If before the war, Muslim communities felt targeted because of the public burning the holy Quran, the war has spilled over to EU member states and led to an increase in antisemitic incidents.
Fundamentally un-European
Directly after the attack, pro-Hamas demonstrations took place, glorifying the horrific attack and calling for Israel’s destruction. While some EU member states have anti-terrorism legislation in place which can be applied against incitement to terrorism and hatred, other countries are reluctant to curtail the right to demonstrate and freedom of expression.
“Hatred in any form is fundamentally un-European and we have to mobilise all of our tools to combat this scourge on our societies – for our Jewish communities, for our Muslim communities, and for anyone facing discrimination and violence just for being who they are,” underlined Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of Life.
The Communication will not address directly incitement to hatred at demonstrations but will go some way in stepping up EU’s efforts to fight hatred in all its forms, by reinforcing action across a variety of policies, including security, digital, education, culture and sport. This includes additional funding to protect public places, in particular places of worship which is considered a priority.
There is nothing more un-European than places of worship being unsafe and having to be protected by armed police, Schinas said.
“Today we are taking this up a notch further, making a further €30 million for the protection of public spaces and places of worship such as synagogues and mosques and community centres – with €5 million earmarked specifically for the fight against antisemitic threats given how Jewish places of worship and community have become strong targets recently.”
To protect against threats online, the Commission will push to finalise a reinforced Code of Conduct on countering illegal hate speech online before February 2024 to build on the new horizontal obligations for online platforms in the Digital Services Act. The EU will also step-up support to fact checkers, within the EU and in the Arab speaking world.
Vice-President Schinas also highlighted EU’s flagship legislation on Terrorist Content Online. “This is a powerful tool to remove terrorist content from a platform within one hour. And it is working. Access to terrorist content has been blocked in the EU in numerous instances.”
As an example, he mentioned that Germany has sent removal orders to Telegram to block content disseminated by Hamas, resulting in access to that content being successfully blocked in the EU.
“I encourage Member States to actively and fully use this tool in particular vis-à-vis non-cooperative platforms. And from our side, the Commission will continue to ensure this legislation is properly implemented and put to use.”
The Commission wants also to send a signal with the upgrading the status of its three Coordinators on anti-racism, on antisemitism and on anti-Muslim hatred. Until now, they have played an important role in engaging communities and citizens. The coordinators on antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred signed recently international statements on combatting hatred and discrimination.
Their work will now be further strengthened and the coordinators will be upgraded to envoys, who will have a specific mandate to deepen coordination, including through specific EU funded projects, and to maximise the potential of EU policies to combat hatred, online and offline.
Will the envoys make a concrete difference in the work against hatred?
“It was a political decision to allocate more resources to the envoys,” Vice-President Schinas replied. “The details of this upgrade will be announced in due time.” He is convinced that it will make a difference because their role is crucial in activating networks in the member states.
Is there anything in the Communication and EU’s counter-terrorism directive which can be used to ban hateful demonstrations?
The Communication is not only about one-line hate speech but also about what happens off-line, Vice-President Jourova replied. “We expect the member states to be watchful as always, case by case, based on evidence against individuals. It’s a good thing that we have harmonized the definition of and support to terrorism on EU-level. We should be able to rely on the member states to apply the same rules.”
Vice-President Schinas added that, “We don’t ban demonstrations from Brussels”. It is up to the national law enforcement authorities. “But we have created the conditions for the member states to act.”
Upcoming actions
Part of a whole-of-society response against hatred must also engage religious communities. On 19 December, Schinas will organise a special meeting with religious leaders dedicated to reconciliation.
Since 2009, the dialogue with religions, philosophical and non-confessional organisations is enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty (article 17), aiming at giving religious communities the possibility to express their opinion on EU policies and influence the Union. The meetings provide a setting to explore ways to enhance tolerance and promote respect for religious and non-confessional communities.
In early 2024, the Commission will organise a high-level anti-hatred conference with high-profile participants engaged in the fight against hate and discrimination. Hate crime and hate speech go against the European fundamental values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, as enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty.
Over recent years, the Commission has worked on a set of laws and initiatives to promote and protect EU’s common values and fundamental rights. The core piece of legislation is the 2008 Framework Decision on Combating Racism and Xenophobia, which ensures that serious manifestations of racism and xenophobia are punishable by effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal sanctions.
Through the enforcement of the digital Services Act (DSA), and the reinforced code of conduct on countering illegal hate speech, further decisive steps will be taken to ensure that what is illegal offline is also treated as such online.
The DSA includes strict obligations for online platforms to counter illegal content. It will be applicable to all platforms from 17 February 2024, but it already applies to 19 designated very large online platforms and search engines. Under the DSA, the Commission had sent mid-October a formal request for information to X, META and TikTok, about the alleged spreading of illegal content and disinformation, and in particular the spreading of terrorist and violent content and hate speech.
To reinforce this framework, in December 2021, the Commission proposed to extend the current list of ‘EU crimes' set out in the Treaties to hate speech and hate crime. The recent surge in hatred underlines the imperative for rapid adoption of a unanimous Council Decision, to protect our common EU values, the Commission says.
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times
