Hate speech and hate crime: Time to act?

Summary:

Over the last 20 years, there has been a marked increase in hate speech and hate crime in Europe. Expressing hate has become socially acceptable, stigmatising and dehumanising individuals and groups of people for characteristics ranging from age, ethnicity, gender identity, language, nationality, race, religion, and sex to sexual orientation. Widespread use of the internet and social media has increasingly brought hate speech online. EU law criminalises hate speech and hate crime, but only if it relates to a limited set of characteristics, such as race and ethnicity. The European Commission, with the European Parliament's support, would like to widen the scope of the prohibition. In December 2021, the Commission proposed to extend the list of EU crimes under Article 83(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) to hate speech and hate crime. This would allow the Commission to propose a common legal framework to combat hate speech and hate crime across the EU. With this initiative, the Commission hopes to address Member States' current divergent and fragmented approaches to hate speech and hate crime and to ensure consistent protection of victims across the EU. While the Parliament has enthusiastically welcomed the Commission's proposal, Member States (in Council) have been unable to agree on the plan. More recently, the terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel on 7 October 2023 and Israel's military response in Gaza have triggered an alarming rise in threats and violence against both Jews and Muslims, across the EU. In November 2023, a Commission communication called on the Council to move quickly to adopt a decision to include hate speech and hate crime among the criminal offences listed in Article 83(1) TFEU, to allow the Commission to propose legislation in this area. Parliament echoed this message in a January 2024 resolution. This briefing builds on a 2019 paper by Piotr Bakowski. It should be read in conjunction with a forthcoming briefing on legislation on hate speech and hate crime in EU Member States.

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