No place for hate

 

Background

In December 2023, the European Commission and the High Representative published a Communication entitled No place for hate: a Europe united against hatred, in which they called upon all Europeans to stand up against hatred and speak up for tolerance and respect.

In April, the Commission organised the European Citizens’ Panel on Tackling Hatred in Society, which brought together 150 randomly selected citizens to look at the root causes of hatred and ways to address them. The panel came up with recommendations on how to tackle hate speech and hate crime and move from hatred and division to the shared enjoyment of European values.

The values set out in the EU treaties are neither theoretical nor optional: they must apply to everyone in the EU. Every individual, every community, every faith deserves equal respect.

The cohesion of our society is undermined when pressure mounts against particular groups. Communities, individuals and minorities are experiencing acts of hatred every day because of their racial and ethnic origin, their faith, their disability, their gender or their sexuality. Hatred can come in many forms, ranging from harassment and verbal abuse to threats and actual acts of violence.

Acts of intimidation, harassment, violence and discrimination are unacceptable and incompatible with everything the European Union stands for.

Recent figures point to the growing polarisation of society and a rise of hate crime and hate speech, both online and offline. For example, an EU-funded project analysed eight million online messages in the EU and concluded that hate toxicity has risen by 30% since the start of 2023. Recent attacks on politicians also point to the rise in political violence.

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) shares the grave concern of all EU institutions regarding the unacceptable increase in negative sentiments, incidents and acts of violence provoked by hate towards groups or individuals on the basis of their religion, racial or ethnic origin or their gender or sexuality.

 

Key points

In the opinion, the EESC:

  1. welcomes the Communication while stressing the need for a more comprehensive partnership with CSOs. It calls for awareness-raising campaigns and efforts to combat the ‘ecosystems’ of hatred off- and online and recalls the responsibility of politicians to avoid language promoting division and hated;
  2. calls on the EU to adopt a comprehensive approach and fight hate based on any protected human characteristics, to effectively implement existing strategies and initiatives promoting equality and non-discrimination and to primarily use the same approach to fighting all types of hate. It calls on the Member States to prosecute hate-based crimes, encourage reporting and train law enforcement agencies to handle such cases properly, with due respect for the victims;
  3. regrets that the anti-hate drive on online platforms is underdeveloped in scale and impact. The role and expertise of the flaggers should be expanded to consistently cover all types of online hate biases. Media and digital literacy should be improved to ensure more effective reporting of hate crimes.

The text of the draft opinion can be found here.

 

Additional information

Section: Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship (SOC)

Opinion number: SOC/792

Opinion type: Referral from the European Commission

Rapporteur: Cristian PÎRVULESCU

Co-rapporteur: Milena ANGELOVA

Reference: (JOIN(2023) 51 – final)

Date of adoption by section: 23/5/2024

Result of the vote: 50 in favour/0 against/1 abstention

Date of adoption in plenary: 30/5/2024–31/5/2024

Result of the vote:   in favour/ against/ abstentions

 

Contacts:

Press officer: Simran Grewal/Laura Lui          

Tel.: 00 32 2 546 9189

Email: Simran.Grewal@eesc.europa.eu/ laurairena.lui@eesc.europa.eu

 

Administrator: June Bedaton

Tel.: +32 2 546 8134

Email: June.Bedaton@eesc.europa.eu