EU in bid to define genocide

Member states’ ambassadors to the EU will soon begin debating the wording of a proposal to punish genocide denial and incitement to hatred, following concerns raised by justice ministers last week (15 February).

Estonia, backed by other new member states, said it wanted to see communist-era crimes listed in the proposal. But there is likely to be opposition to this given that many member states want to avoid mentioning what specific acts should punishable, so as to protect the various emphases given to freedom of expression across the EU.

Even among the member states which were part of the Soviet Union there were different levels of support for Estonia’s suggestion. "The Czech view is that it is not a necessary condition to include this in the proposal. We can exempt it or we can support it," said the Czech Minister for Justice Jir?í Pospíöil.

Diplomats hinted that a separate proposal could be put forward to punish communist-era crimes but this was unlikely to be done by the German presidency.

Discussions in the coming weeks are also likely to focus on concerns among other member states over the ‘mutual legal assistance’ clause in the proposal which would compel states to help investigate and prosecute a resident if they had committed an act considered a crime in another state but which was not an offence in their country. For states such as Sweden, Denmark and the UK this could prove controversial and involve prosecuting crimes anathema to their justice systems, for example the dissemination of books such as Mein Kampf.

France on the other hand favours taking a tough line on this. "If we don’t include the element of judicial co-operation you could have some people making comments in some countries with no consequences. It is simply not acceptable," said a French diplomat.

Member states’ ambassadors to the EU will soon begin debating the wording of a proposal to punish genocide denial and incitement to hatred, following concerns raised by justice ministers last week (15 February).