Race watchdog ‘U-turn’

Date: 04/12/03

THE EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) is set to reconsider its controversial decision to shelve a report on anti-Semitism, its director has told European Voice.

Beate Winkler has been under fire from the European Jewish Congress and MEPs for allegedly trying to conceal the report's findings, which concluded that Muslim and pro-Palestinian groups were responsible for a rise in anti-Semitic incidents. The director, who appeared before the Parliament's justice and home affairs committee on Tuesday, insisted that the EUMC had "nothing to hide".

Its decision not to publish was "based on a belief that the report was incomplete, too generalized and needed further research", she added. Senior officials at the Vienna-based EUMC raised concerns when the study, compiled by the Centre for Research on Anti-Semitism in Berlin, was delivered in October last year. In particular, they questioned the authors' definition of anti-Semitism, which included some anti-Israel acts, and their focus on Muslim perpetrators.

The report, called Manifestations of Anti-Semitism in Europe, has appeared this week on the website of the European Jewish Congress (EJC). Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-leader of the Greens/European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament, said: "In a democracy, we need transparency rather than censorship for whatever reason."

The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) is to reconsider its controversial February 2003 decision not to publish a report on anti-Semitism in Europe. It was originally decided not to publish the report because the findings concluded that Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups were behind many of the incidents in the period covered.

Website: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) http://fra.europa.eu/

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