EU agrees breakthrough hate-crime law
After six years of political wrangling, the European Union has agreed to make incitement to racism and xenophobia a crime across the 27-nation bloc, setting a jail sentence of at least one to three years. But the text avoids controversial terms such as the Holocaust and crimes under the Stalin regime.
The deal agreed by justice ministers on Thursday (19 April) "proves that the EU now has moral responsibility and not only on the economy" EU home affairs commissioner Franco Frattini said.
"There is no safe haven for racist violence, anti-Semitism or people inciting to xenophobic hatred," he added, underlining the text agreed by ministers is "a right balance between fully respecting freedom of speech and punishing any criminal actions, not ideas."
Under the new law, offenders will face up to three years in jail for "public incitement to violence or hatred, directed against a group of persons or a member of such a group defined by reference to race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin."
The same rules will apply to people "publicly condoning, denying, or grossly trivialising crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes," but only those recognised under statutes of the International Criminal Court.
According to German justice minister Brigitte Zypries, speaking on behalf of Berlin's six-month EU presidency, the EU-wide sentencing framework is "an important political signal...especially to the young generation."
However, the wording has been carefully chosen to make it acceptable to the UK, Ireland and the Scandinavian countries, who were particularly worried about the scope of freedom of speech.
Denial of the Holocaust is allowed under British freedom of speech rules, unless it specifically incites racial hatred.
On the other hand, the three Baltic countries and Poland and Slovenia - all carrying the burden of a communist past - gave up their demand that crimes under the Stalin regime in the former Soviet Union also fall under the bill's scope.
In exchange, a declaration saying the EU will organise high profile public debates on totalitarian regimes accompanies the new law. "This is our political response to those concerns," Mr Frattini said.
EU Observer