Florence to launch anti-racism institute

Date: 30/05/1996

By Thomas Klau

FACED with a tidal wave of racist and anti-foreigner crime, EU leaders look set to agree at their summit in Florence next month on the creation of an observatory to monitor the phenomenon.

But member states are divided over the politically-charged issue of how far to involve the Council of Europe in the observatory's work.

The Council of Europe - which participated in the work of the consultative commission on racism and xenophobia which unanimously recommended setting up such an observatory - has long seen issues linked to human rights in Europe as its virtually exclusive domain, and the only one in which it has achieved significant public prominence.

With backing from several EU member states, the Council has been fighting a battle to prevent the Union from setting up an independent anti-racist observatory.

Instead, its ministerial committee has asked for the observatory to be launched as a joint venture between itself and the EU, with a mission to act as “an instrument of support to the existing institutions”, as the committee's acting president, Danish Foreign Minister Niels Helveg Petersen, wrote to his Union counterparts.

However, an overwhelming majority of the anti-racism commission's members rejected that approach and asked for the observatory to be an autonomous EU institution, with the Council of Europe merely associated with its work.

As their feasibility study submitted to the Florence summit makes clear, the commission advocates giving the observatory the right to collect and analyse data on racism and xenophobia, and devise policy proposals for the EU as a whole as well as for individual member states.

It is also intended to act as a watchdog, highlighting alarming developments which have so far escaped media attention.

Sources stress that such an active role for the observatory would not be feasible, either politically or legally, if the Council of Europe were to be involved as an equal partner in the institution.

Advocates of a strong role for the observatory highlight the fact that the involvement of all 38 member states of the Council of Europe - and the need to secure their approval on any issue - would prevent the new institution from taking any effective action.

Their fears were fuelled by the Council of Europe's decision to accept Russia as a full member, despite clear evidence of systematic breaches of human and citizens' rights by Russian authorities. “Allowing Russia to vet the observatory's decisions would threaten to make the institution pretty meaningless,” said one observer.

Under the commission's proposal, the observatory would function with a small staff of 25 at most and collaborate extensively with government administrations, non-governmental organisations and other experts.

Supporters of the project stress that the idea has won the backing of both the European Commission and the Parliament, which has declared its willingness to approve 5 million ecu in funding for the new body.