92001E3408

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3408/01

by Glyn Ford (PSE) to the Commission

(5 December 2001)

Subject: Anti-semitic badges

During a holiday in Crete, one of my South-West constituents walked into a shop which had a range of anti-semitic badges on sale. An example of these was the one that my constituent bought, in order to send to my office, which said Chelsea Football Club: Up Chelsea, Fuck the yids.

Is the Commission aware that such offensive badges were being sold in Crete?

If so, will the Commission make representations to the Greek Government about this issue?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(8 January 2002)

Racism and xenophobia are a direct violation of the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law, principles upon which the Union is founded and which are common to the Member States as stated in Article 6 of the Treaty on the European Union.

The Commission has recently presented a proposal for a Framework Decision(1), a legislative instrument in the field of penal law. The purpose of the Framework Decision is twofold: firstly, to ensure that the same racist and xenophobic conducts are punishable by the same penalties in all Member States and secondly, to improve and encourage judicial cooperation by removing potential obstacles.

Public insults towards individuals or groups for a racist or xenophobic purpose, as well as public dissemination of racist material by any means are included among the behaviours to be punishable as criminal offences in all Member States.

(1) COM(2001) 664 final.