10
Oct
2024
Watch
The rise of religious intolerance in Europe (debate)
Madam President, Vice-President Schinas, this is 2024, isn't it worrying that we are talking about the growth of intolerance and religious hatred in the European Union? The diagnosis is made: It is put on the table by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and we have heard it exposed in choral polyphony here in this debate in the European Parliament. The point is to act, because, since the Framework Decision on combating racism, xenophobia and hate speech of 2008 and the European Commission's Strategy, there is no place for hatred in Europe. There is a decisive legislative initiative by this European Parliament to incorporate into the criminal codes of the Member States – with the coverage of Article 83 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union – crime that incites hatred and therefore also incites violence against entire categories of people based on their membership of a cultural, ethnic or religious community. What is needed, moreover, is to tackle the problem of the proliferation of hate crimes online, to mobilise the European Security Fund to protect threatened people and places of worship and to incorporate all levels of government: Member States, local authorities and regional governments. But lastly, President, it is not just about protecting the victims – which, of course, is also the case; It is also about protecting European society as a decent, open and pluralistic society.