For an Anti-racist Europe
The rise of the far right across Europe is a new manifestation of the continent’s struggle with its colonial and racist legacy and European society’s continued failure to address these issues.
EU countries, such as Hungary, the Netherlands, Germany, and France, are reinstating border checks and straying away from the principle of free movement. The reintroduction of border checks is not just a threat to free movement but increases racial profiling and discrimination in the EU bloc. As noted by PICUM, 2023 research from the EU Fundamental Rights Agency showed that people from an ethnic minority are disproportionately affected by police stops. A 2014 study showed that 79% of border guards surveyed at airports rated ethnicity as a helpful indicator to identifying people attempting to enter the country irregularly. This discrimination is at odds with the European Commission’s commitments under the recent Anti-racism Action Plan (ARAP).
Far-right governments in Europe continue to foster narratives of hate and xenophobia, including by proposing migration policies clearly at odds with human rights and EU law. The United Kingdom (until mid-2024), Italy, and the Netherlands set up mechanisms to outsource the sheltering of refugees to third countries (respectively Rwanda, Albania, and Uganda), all with questionable safety records and possible human rights violations, thereby exposing people to further life-threatening abuse. Italy’s establishment of detention centres for people rescued at sea to Albania has been invalidated by courts, citing violations of international and EU law. Consequently, these judges have come under immense abuse and attacks, including death threats, from Italy’s right-wing government and other right-wing personalities and groups.
The Netherlands plans to send non-national prisoners to Estonia. Police in most European countries still enforce heavier penalties against activists of colour for the same offences as their white peers, with cases of torture and abuse by police recorded by human rights organizations.
Such policies are a result of systemic racism which oppresses, discriminates, disregards, and overlooks ethnic minorities and racialized people. This systemic racism excludes them from fair political representation and participation in policymaking and forces them to suffer from the unequal consequences of economic policies and heightened abuse, motivated by racial hate, both online and in real life. Civic space also continues to shrink to the detriment of those who defend and advocate anti-racism, racial equity, and social justice.
Our work is not over
As Greens, we believe that institutions, including the European Parliament, in combination with grassroots activism, can and do bring about the societal and political change we need. Policies at the European level, created thanks to the push from civil society combined with the efforts of elected officials of European Green Party member parties and other allies in the European Parliament, enabled remarkable advances in the previous EU mandate.
The European Green Party’s values are represented by actions and policy proposals that stand in solidarity with racialized and ethnic-minoritized people throughout Europe. In the past, Green Members of the European Parliament have pushed a mandate for the Anti-Discrimination Directive to be unblocked by the Council. They successfully incorporated countering racism and
discrimination by law enforcement and artificial intelligence (AI) in recent legislation and adopted various resolutions on anti-racism and intersectional discrimination.
As the European Green Party, we welcome the efforts of the Greens/EFA Group in advocating for racial justice and anti-racism internally vis-à-vis European Commissioners, the Parliament, and its committees. The Group recently managed to include the creation of a new anti-racism strategy as an “urgent action to protect democracy and equality” in Commission President von der Leyen’s commitments ahead of her re-election, in line with the European Green Party’s 2024 EU manifesto.
This upcoming mandate brings several crucial priorities and key concerns, including the re-establishment and work of the Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup, the renewal of the ARAP by ensuring the participatory development and implementation of national action plans against racism and discrimination equipped with adequate financial resources, and the election of the second von der Leyen Commission and ensuring its accountability. Furthermore, the intensification of AI and evaluation of the AI Act, the intensification of the climate crisis and thus the exacerbation of climate racism, and the disproportionate effect of the climate crisis in the Global South[1] with a consequent rise in climate refugees are major concerns.
As we continue the fight for an anti-racist and racially just Europe that truly is united in diversity and recall our resolution “The EU has a diversity and inclusion problem. It's high time for a change. Let's be that change!” adopted at the 37th EGP Congress in 2023, we, the European Green Party, commit to:
Continue to push back against right-wing governments and policies which seek to discriminate, dehumanize, and demonize racialized and ethnic-minoritized communities.
Hold the second von der Leyen Commission to account in its commitment to racial justice and the renewal of the ARAP, and to further ensure the meaningful and effective implementation of the renewed ARAP.
Continue advocating for the unblocking of the Anti-Racism Directive by the Council and pushing for its adoption and implementation within the coming mandate.
Ensure the long-term financial, political, and organizational support of the European Parliament Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup (ARDI) and further support its work in the coming mandate.
Build a political and societal climate that welcomes migrants and refugees and pushs back against often discriminatory policies, be it foreign or domestic, aimed at racialized and ethnic-minoritized communities and communities of migrant origin. A migrant-first politics seeks to dismantle policies that externalize the EU border regime, discriminate or oppress migrants in visa and asylum processes or at the border, undermine EU law and free movement (eg. internal border controls and opt-outs), and further entrench Fortress Europe and Frontex. Instead, we advocate for a human rights-based approach and humanitarian alternatives that prioritize the rights of migrants and refugees enshrined in international law.
Pursue an equitable and people-centred foreign policy, where countries are treated equally and maximum focus is given on peace and equitable development cooperation. Herein, the three-way test of recourse to military means of conflict prevention and management, as set out in the Charter of the European Greens, is upheld.
Actively engage in political and societal discussions on climate racism and extractivism and meaningfully incorporate such analysis into our work in parliaments and other institutions, as stressed in the diversity and inclusion resolution. This means acknowledging that the countries and people in the Global South who contribute the least to the climate crisis and are those most affected by its consequences have their resources taken by the Global North in the pursuit of innovation and climate adaptation, thereby increasing their risk of suffering under the climate crisis. Therefore, we also advocate for the further development and funding of the “Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage”. Within Europe, we acknowledge that racialized and ethnic-minoritized communities are often disproportionately subjected to the consequences of the climate crisis or neglected and discriminated against in climate action.
Meaningfully address the destructive legacy of European countries in their former colonies and current dominions and territories in the pursuit of transitional and reparatory justice. For example, this includes but is not limited to reparations in the form of formal apologies, debt cancellation, monetary restitution, emancipatory development aid, and the return of cultural artefacts and human remains to indigenous peoples in their land of origin. At the EU level, we must meaningfully engage with our partners in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and the African Union, who have initiated calls for and attempts at dialogue for such reparations vis-à-vis the European Union.
Advocate for the continuation and expansion of funding for anti-racism organizations at both the local and international level.
Call for the protection of anti-racism organizations from dis- and malinformation and racial abuse, through the explicit commitment of our institutions to establish channels that denounce such practices and allocate structures to prevent them in all contexts, including in the public institutions themselves.
Condemn the acts and enabling of media corporations that contribute to perpetuating and encouraging racial and sexual abuse against racialized and ethnic-minoritized communities particularly through dehumanization and demonization. We are committed to press freedom as a fundamental democratic principle, but emphasize that this freedom has limits with respect to discrimination and incitement against ethnic-minoritized communities. We advocate for the Europe-wide establishment of standards regarding the representation of minoritized communities.
Strengthen tools to tackle racism and racial abuse in the digital space, through the codification in law and the mandating of the currently optional EU Code of Conduct on countering illegal hate speech online for social media corporations and through the adoption of specialized legislation on cyber-racism amending or supporting the Digital Services Act and the Framework Decision on combating racism and xenophobia, drawing from the Australian model.
Meaningfully tackle Islamophobia and antisemitism within the European Green Party’s member parties, the European Parliament, and across wider European society.
Introduce and meaningfully execute programmes to ensure an inclusive culture and increase and sustain racial diversity in political and organizational positions of power within member parties and the wider Green family, and push for them to be implemented in the European Parliament, echoing the 2023 diversity and inclusion resolution.
Take on these measures using an intersectional approach.
[1] The terms “Global North” and “Global South” do not refer to the geographical locations of countries nor do they means that all the countries under this umbrella term share the same history. However, we strongly believe in using the terms Global North and Global South instead of terms that look solely at income based on GDP. Such labels do not reflect the unequal power dynamics between former colonies and countries who have benefited from colonization in various ways (economic and social). These systems have and in some case still extract from formerly colonized countries. The terms also highlight how, despite decolonization, the coloniality of these systems endures in various facets and in how different countries interact. We also recognize that other terms such as “Global Majority” exist that also try to reflect these considerations. We refer ourselves to the Oxfam Inclusive language guide as well as the United Nations Group of 77 (G77) who use the terms Global North and Global South.
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