Antiracism in the EU

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

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Dear Minister Bence, dear Ministers,

Thank you for the invitation to attend this Council meeting and allow me to commend you on your choice of topic for substantive discussion.

As the Commission’s implementation report notes, the anti-racism action plan is “a key initiative [in] the fight against racism and racial discrimination across the EU and beyond. It outlines a comprehensive framework for promoting non-discrimination, equality, diversity and pluralism in the EU Member States and sets out a range of measures to tackle racism in various areas, including law enforcement, education, employment, housing, and health.”

In the last 12 months, my agency, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, has published a series of survey results which highlight the urgent need for the implementation of the action plan. Across all our data, we see a worrying spike in racism and discrimination against people of African descent, Jews, Muslims and LGBTIQ people.

Based on data collected in 2016, FRA's first Being Black in the EU report exposed widespread and entrenched racism against people of African descent in Europe. Updated with new data, the 2023 report revisits the situation, revealing persistent racial discrimination, harassment and violence. Almost half of people of African descent surveyed experience racial discrimination, an increase from 39 % in 2016 to 45 % in 2022, reaching as high as 77%. Yet, discrimination remains invisible as only 9% report it.

Similarly, racist harassment remains widespread and largely unreported as well. A third of people of African descent experience it, yet 87 % did not report the most recent incident to any authority or service. Nearly half of respondents who did not report racist harassment most often felt that nothing would change if they reported the incident. Among those who reported a racist harassment incident to the police, 76 % were unsatisfied with how their complaint was handled.

Most victims of racist violence suffer from psychological problems and worry about being attacked again. Experiences of racial discrimination and racist harassment and crime undermine trust in public institutions. The greatest negative effect was on trust in the police, the legal system and local and municipal authorities. This in turn discourages victims from reporting crime to the police. This particular issue of trust was further compounded by our finding that, of the 12% of respondents who had been stopped by police in the 12 months before the survey, 58% characterised the most recent stop as racial profiling.

This trend was reinforced in other work carried out by FRA. In April this year, we published the first EU-wide report on racism in policing, in which we found that most EU countries do not collect or properly record official data on racist incidents involving the police.

In addition to the data collection on experiences of discrimination and hate crime, FRA has been working on related topics with respect to online content moderation and hate speech. Our 2023 report on online content moderation found that high levels of hate speech regularly slip through existent content moderation systems - most notably hate speech and harassment targeting women and ethnic minorities.

Our data also shows that discrimination stands in the way of tapping into the potential in our workforces. The overqualification rate – that is, the proportion of people with tertiary education employed in low- or medium-skilled occupations – is higher for people of African descent than for the general population in the EU- 27 regardless of whether they are nationals of the survey country (35 % compared with 21 %) or third-country nationals (57 % compared with 40 %).

The lack of progress across all areas, from harassment and discrimination to structural inequalities in employment, education, housing and health, is particularly alarming, considering that binding anti-discrimination law has been in place in the EU since 2000 and significant EU policy has developed since then.

While painting this picture of an unequal EU, the Fundamental Rights Agency – in every project and report - is committed to suggesting solutions for ways forward. In order to achieve ‘a Europe united against hatred’ - the goal communicated by the Commission in December 2023 - allow me to briefly mention some concrete examples of where we go from here.

• Member States should develop and implement anti-racism action plans along with independent monitoring and accountability mechanisms. Progress to date is positive: 11 Member States have adopted a dedicated national action plan, with 5 more in development. 10 Member States have integrated anti-racism measures in other national action plans
• Member States should put in place mechanisms for the robust and regular collection of equality data on all grounds of discrimination, so that the development of legislation and policy can consider an intersectional approach. Furthermore, they should develop benchmarks, targets and indicators, using the expertise of FRA, the EU Subgroup on Equality Data and the Eurostat’s Equality and Non-Discrimination Statistics Task Force. One finding from FRA’s LGBTIQ survey shows the importance of taking such an approach: the prevalence of a bias motivated harassment is higher among those LGBTIQ respondents who define themselves as an asylum seeker, refugee, or a member of a minority group in terms of religion, ethnicity, or skin colour than those who do not identify as such.
• Member States should promote the use of practical tools that help implement anti-discrimination law provisions, such as public sector equality duties and equality impact assessments.
• Member States should implement the directives on binding standards for equality bodies without delay and ensure that equality bodies have the necessary mandates and sufficient human, technical and financial resources to carry out their tasks and fulfil their roles in tackling discrimination effectively and independently.
• Member States should fully and correctly transpose and enforce the provisions of the 2008 framework decision on racism and xenophobia. This includes taking measures to ensure that a racist or xenophobic motive is considered an aggravating circumstance and is taken into consideration in determining penalties.
• Because victims are reluctant to come forward, structures that facilitate reporting should be set up or improved, including strengthening and sufficiently funding cooperation with civil society organisations
• To fight under-recording of hate crime, Member States should ensure that the police, public prosecutors and judges are trained to recognise and respond appropriately to instances of racist crime.
• Consistent with their obligations under the Victims’ Rights Directive, Member States should sustain their efforts to raise victims’ awareness of their rights and available support services. In this respect, proposed amendments to the Directive around victims’ protection needs and targeted and integrated services should be supported.

Though the picture remains bleak, in terms of the data and examples I have presented today, there are reasons to remain resilient and stay the course we find ourselves on. We have identified the gaps and inequalities, we have legislative and policy foundations in place, and we have the current action plan and future strategy to light the way. Paired with political will and united efforts, I have hope that we can effect change in tangible ways. I assure you that FRA will be your partner throughout, not least of all with our relevant upcoming publications, which include ‘Being Muslim in the EU’ later this month, and the main results report of the EU Survey on Immigrants and Descendants of Immigrants, and the update of the Anti-Muslim Hatred online database, both in 2025.

Thank you.