“Trends, Developments And Strategies For Tolerance And Diversity: EUMC Work To Date” is the title of the Opening remarks by Dr. Beate Winkler, Director of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, Vienna. The speech was held on 7th of November in Centrum Judaicum at the occasion of the official openening of the European Youth Conference "European Youth in action for Diversity and Tolerance".

Chair, Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen, dear Friends,

It is a great pleasure for me and the EUMC to be here with you today. I am always particularly keen to meet and to listen to young people who engage in debates and action. You are an active part of European societies – and that is something we really need when it comes to promoting diversity and tolerance and fighting racism, discrimination and xenophobia.

1. THE EUMC
Many of the issues faced by you fall squarely within the mandate of the EUMC. The EUMC‘s core task is to collect and analyse data, to work out strategies in order to help the European Union’s institutions and Governments to fight racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia. We do this by providing them with evidence based data and information. The EUMC has initiated many initiatives and projects. One of our major tasks was to set up a RAcism and XENophobia data collection network which it calls RAXEN for short. The network consists of organisations, which we call National Focal Points, operating in all the EU Member States. Among others, the EUMC has been involved in the preparation of this conference, and I see with great pleasure that so many of you came to debate and promote action and dialogue on diversity and tolerance.

Four years ago, I had already the opportunity to address a Youth Conference. Maybe some of you were already present then. Today, I will present our observations since 2001 and address trends and developments on racism and xenophobia in Europe. I have some good news and some bad news. So, what are the main developments on racism and xenophobia in the EU?

2. OVERVIEW ON THE SITUATION: MAIN ASPECTS
I would like to look at four main aspects:
a) Statistical data
b) Legal developments
c) Existing initiatives to combat racism and xenophobia
d) Role of the Civil Society

a) Statistical data
Let us first have a look at the statistics that suggests that racist incidents are on the rise in many Member States. Our Annual Report gives you a brief overview on this. At the same time we know that the whole area of racially motivated incidents is underreported and the statistics are often not reliable. There is a number of reasons for that. For one, very often, victims of racist crimes do not report these to the police. And even if they do, there might be no provisions in place for recording crimes as racially motivated. In addition, it is difficult to compare national data, because all Member States have different systems of data collection in place. So we end up with the situation that countries like the UK show a much higher number of racist incidents than other countries – but don’t jump to wrong conclusions! That might be just because the UK has one of the best reporting systems in place. And this is the case.
The EUMC has always promoted data collection and we have highlighted data collection practices, like that one in the UK as an example of good practice. We need to know what the situation is in order to achieve effective change!

Besides this difficulty there are a number of trends which are clear:

o Immigrants are facing discrimination in the fields of employment, housing, access to healthcare, and education.

o Roma, Jews, and people with Arabic and African descent are the main victims.

o Unemployment rates are twice as high among immigrants as among the majority population.

o There are clear patterns of discrimination in the field of education, where data show early dropout and lower completion rates.

o Overall, there is a worrying trend towards social marginalization of migrants and minorities, causing some to retreat into segregation, or into so-called “parallel societies”.

o One last observation that I would like to add is the linkage of racist violence with ongoing political developments. When I spoke to this conference last time, it was only some weeks after the terrible terrorist attacks in New York, and now we are just some months after the terrorist attacks in London. The EUMC reacted in all cases immediately and identified that after 9/11, 3/15, and after 7/7, verbal and violent attacks against Muslims increased considerably.

o On the overall picture, the EUMC made the following observation from the Eurobarometer survey from March this year: 79 % of the people who had been interviewed had no problem interacting with minorities. But at the same time, almost half displayed a critical attitude towards cultural and religious diversity. Particularly interesting for you might be the result on young people: they expressed more openness to diversity than other age groups.

b) Legal developments
The second point I want to look at is legislation: We have legislation on equality and non-discrimination on two levels: in the Member States and at EU level.
There are two EU anti-discrimination Directives. One outlaws discrimination in the fields of employment, education, social protection, and social services including housing. The other directive focuses in more detail on employment and occupation. A directive means that the EU Member States are obliged to transpose this legislation into national law, and every resident in the EU will be able to enforce their rights under these directives in their respective national courts. The Member States had until 2003 to do this. Whereas most countries have done quite well, some still need to speed up and have actually already been criticized by the EU Court of Justice for their delays. Therefore in all EU Member States, discrimination on grounds of race or ethnic origin is banned to some extent; but the scope, content and enforcement differ considerably.

There is one other document that I would like to mention for the EU level, and that is the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which was declared in 2000; and its text was later fully incorporated in the Draft Constitution of Europe. The aim of this Charter is to strengthen the protection of fundamental rights, by making those rights more visible to all citizens.

c) Initiatives to combat racism and xenophobia
I would of course also like to say something about ongoing initiatives to combat racism and xenophobia. I am pleased to say that these initiatives are actually manifold, and still increasing. The development of integration programmes has been stepped up, as have training projects and projects aimed at improving communication and countering discrimination. There are really many good examples, from very small local community initiatives to big programs. There will be further opportunity to discuss such examples of good practice during our conference. I would just like to give you some examples.

- First, at Member State level:
At least five Member States have, or are now introducing, awareness training programmes aimed at the judiciary or other administrative bodies. In Belgium, for example, the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism has provided training sessions to magistrates and to the police school in Bruges.
Also, several countries have proposed or adopted targeted action programmes.

- At the local level we have seen many initiatives by local communities to tackle racism. For example in the city of Glasgow in Scotland, where pupils across the 184 primary schools will now be taught about racial discrimination and how to deal with it.
Or take the example of Rotterdam in the Netherlands: Rotterdam has a population almost half of which has foreign roots and which is rich in variety. Upon realization that promotion of diversity needs to be brought closer to a concept of integration, the City organised public debates and followed with an action plan on ‘Islam and Integration’. Over 1500 people participated in expert meetings, internal debates within the Muslim communities, and a series of public debates between all Rotterdammers, non-Muslims and Muslims. It is intended to arrive at a community charter, which will consist primarily of agreements between all the citizens of Rotterdam. The response to this project by the population was very good.

- At European level.
Of course, I would also like to name some of the EU-wide initiatives: The Community has an action program to combat discrimination, which runs from 2001 to 2006, with a budget of 100 million Euro. Also, much Community action is under way to foster intercultural education – including the mobility actions of the LEONARDO, SOCRATES and COMENIUS programmes. In particular, the fight against racism and xenophobia is one of the priorities of the Community Action Programme called YOUTH. Also, the EU Commission has designated 2007 as “European Year of Equal Opportunities for All” to promote equality and non-discrimination in the EU.
And there is of course the EUMC, established 8 years ago to deal with racism and xenophobia. It is envisaged that in 2007 the mandate of the EUMC will be extended to make it the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency.

In this context I would also like to underline that the EUMC is here to support young people’s efforts to address racism and xenophobia in the form of research, but also in the form of Roundtables, that could address specific issues of racism and young people. We are here to listen to your concerns, fears and wishes to address the situation. Together in a dialogue we can make things change!

d) Rule of civil society
This leads me directly to my forth point: What is the role of civil society and of young people in all this? What can you actively do?
Information and education are in my opinion the key to combating intolerance and discrimination. Nelson Mandela said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” The Eurobarometer survey shows indeed that people with more education are more open towards cultural and ethnic diversity.
When it comes to information, obviously, media as well as decision-makers and community or religious leaders bear a high responsibility. Because the use of language determines the way in which people think. To give you one example: A report by the Helsinki Federation illustrates that more than 80% of Germans surveyed in 2004 associated the word “Islam” with “terrorism” and “oppression of women”. Clearly, what we need here is much more sensitivity, responsibility and awareness-raising. Both as individuals as well as NGOs you need to speak up when you get aware of prejudices and misconceptions. Next to awareness raising, the second important task for NGOs in my view is related to victim support.

To be a bit more concrete I would like to name some of these awareness raising and victim support initiatives:
- In general, NGOs play an important role in providing accurate and objective information in response to racist propaganda; for example through quick response services, anti-racist homepages, newsletters etc.

- There are Anti-Racism Education weeks, with concerts, debates, lectures and so on, in several countries.

- There are also media initiatives, and even companies’ efforts to combat discrimination.

- I am also thinking of schools projects, from workshop programmes by NGOs for schools, to school education for asylum seekers, to give you some examples.

- Special publications for children on racism and xenophobia have been produced by some NGOs, and it would be desirable to see more of these as well.

- Another area is the growing racism on the Internet. Here, as in all other areas, the reporting and the collection of data on incidents must be stepped up.
It is always very reassuring for me to see these ongoing initiatives. But, and I think we all agree on this, a lot still remains to be done.

To me, young people, you, have a particular role to play in this. Not only are young people more open towards diversity than all other groups, as surveys show – but they also have a special potential to find new and creative ways for the needed change. Many of you are active in NGOs and civil society organisations. I do not need to tell you what to do; but I would like to encourage you: active citizenship does work, and it will work through your ideas and through your action. I would like to urge all of us that we always dare to speak up and take action about the things that matter: and that is the respect for every human being, no matter what skin colour, what language, what religion, or what culture.
In this context I would like to remind you that the EUMC is here to support you. In 2006, we will take a few steps to address the issue of youth.

3. CONCLUSION

Let me summarise:

- Since 2001, ethnic, cultural, religious minorities have experienced more and more discrimination and violence.

- At the same time, there are many positive developments, like better legislation, or new initiatives to combat racism and xenophobia.

- Of course, legal provisions and initiatives by the authorities are extremely important. But there are two more things needed if we want to tackle discrimination effectively: one is greater political leadership, education and information, and the other is active civil society involvement.
In this context I am very curious to see what policy action you will formulate further in the Action Plan of this conference, which will be handed over to policy makers.

Dear Participants,
Youth have at all times been important motors for social change. If I have one message for you all to take back to your countries and cities, families and friends, it is this: You can make a difference! And you are able to do so!

Thank you very much for your attention and let me wish you a very successful conference!

Dr. Beate Winkler