EU policies and actions
Antisemitism is a complex phenomenon and needs a holistic response across policy areas. The European Commission is tackling antisemitism as part of many policies.
On 20 March 2019 the Commission published a Staff Working Document on “Countering racism and xenophobia in the EU: fostering a society where pluralism, tolerance and non-discrimination prevails” which takes stock of the actions taken by Juncker’s Commission and suggests responses to challenges ahead. The document contains a specific part on actions taken on preventing and combating antisemitism in the EU.
EU High Level Group on combating racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance
The High Level Group is a platform to support EU and national efforts in ensuring effective implementation of relevant rules and in setting up effective policies to prevent and combat hate crime and hate speech, including with an antisemitic bias.
Several practical guidance tools have already been developed for national actors in key areas such as hate crime training, access to justice, support and protection for victims of hate crime and hate speech and hate crime recording.
A guidance note on the practical application of the EU Framework Decision on combating racism and xenophobia has also been adopted on the occasion of its 10-year anniversary, to help national authorities address common issues of practical application of these rules and ensure effective investigation, prosecution and sentencing of hate crime and hate speech on the ground.
Countering disinformation online
On 16 June 2022, the Commission published the strengthened Code of Practice on Disinformation. The 34 signatories, such as platforms, tech companies and civil society followed the 2021 Commission Guidance and took into account the lessons learnt from the COVID19 crisis and Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine. The reinforced Code builds on the first Code of Practice of 2018, which has been widely acknowledged as pioneering framework globally. The new Code sets out extensive and precise commitments by platforms and industry to fight disinformation and marks another important step for a more transparent, safe and trustworthy online environment.
On 10 June 2020, the European Commission adopted the TACKLING CORONAVIRUS DISINFORMATION - Getting The Facts Right’ communication. It forms the Commission response to the spike of online disinformation, conspiracies and state influence operations around COVID-19 and proposes concrete action. Among other, it states that “Conspiracy theories that may endanger human health, harm the cohesion of our societies and may lead to public violence and create social unrest (…for example conspiracies and myths … about a particular ethnic or religious group being at the origin of the spread of COVID-19, such as the worrying rise in COVID-19 related antisemitic content) require to strengthen the commitment of the whole society, including competent authorities, media, journalists, fact-checkers, civil society and online platforms, and include for example prompt debunking, demotion, possible removal or action against accounts.”
These actions come as a follow-up to the 2018 Action Plan against Disinformation, anchored firmly in European values and fundamental rights, in particular the freedom of expression.
Countering illegal hate speech online
To prevent and counter the spread of illegal hate speech online, in May 2016, the Commission agreed with Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube a “Code of conduct on countering illegal hate speech online”.
The platforms agreed to assess the majority of users’ notifications of in 24h also respecting EU and national legislation on hate speech and committed to remove, if necessary, those messages assessed illegal. The companies also agreed to further work on improving the feedback to users and being more transparent towards the general society. Until 2019, also Instagram, Google+, Snapchat, Dailymotion and jeuxvideo.com joined the Code of conduct.
The seventh evaluation on the Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online shows that the number of notifications reviewed within 24 hours (64.4%) has decreased as compared to 2021 (81%) and 2020 (90.4%). Only TikTok has increased its performance (from 82.5% to 91.7%). The average removal rate (63.6%) is similar to 2021 (62.5%), but still lower than in 2020 (71%). Looking at the individual performance of the platforms, most of them (except for YouTube) have removed less hate speech content than in 2021. The quality of feedback to users’ notifications has improved as compared to previous monitoring exercises.
The European Commission adopted on 1 March 2018 a Recommendation on measures to effectively tackle illegal content online. Online platforms need to be more responsible in content governance. The recommendation proposes a common approach to quickly and proactively detect, remove and prevent the reappearance of content online:
- Clearer 'notice and action' procedures;
- More efficient tools and proactive technologies;
- Stronger safeguards to ensure fundamental rights;
- Special attention to small companies;
- Closer cooperation with authorities.
Terrorist content online
In September 2018, the European Commission proposed new rules to get terrorist content off the web given the continuing threat posed by terrorist content online. The proposal builds on six strands:
- A legally binding 1-hour deadline for content to be removed, following receipt of a removal order issued by national authorities.
- Online platforms to take proactive measures, proportionate to the level of exposure to terrorist content.
- Points of contact designated by online platforms and Member States reachable 24/7.
- Complaint mechanism and human verification to be set up by online platforms. Judicial remedies to be guaranteed by Member States.
- Annual transparency reports from online platforms and Commission monitoring programme based on actions taken by Member States.
- Financial penalties of up to 4% of online platforms global turnover for a systematic failure to remove terrorist content online.
Factsheet on eliminating online terrorist content
Working Group on hate crime recording, data collection and encouraging reporting
To combat hate crime effectively, victims must be able to report their experiences to authorities and be protected and supported, police must register the incidents appropriately and perpetrators must be held to account. The Victims Directive (Directive 2012/29/EU) obliges Member States to identify victims of hate crimes from their first contact with the police so victims receive appropriate information to access their rights taking into account their specific needs and personal circumstances.
On 24 June 2020, the European Commission adopted a new strategy for better supporting victims of crime in particular hate crime victims. It reiterates Europe’s determination to prevent and combat crime, in all its forms, including racial, antisemitic, homophobic, or transphobic hate crime. This includes addressing underreporting of hate crime among Jewish communities. To increase crime reporting, it is vital to raise trust towards public authorities. It is equally important to ensure specific training about non-discrimination for police and other persons coming into contact with those victims. The main objective is to ensure that all victims of crime, in particular hate crime can fully rely on their rights.
In 2017, the High Level Group endorsed the Subgroup’s key guiding principles on hate crime recording.
Security
In the past years, the European Union and its Member States have taken decisive action to deny terrorists the means to carry out attacks, share information between Member States, counter radicalisation and manage our borders better. But as the recurring terrorist attacks in Europe show, more needs to be done to prevent in the future attacks such as those seen in the streets of Barcelona, Berlin, London, Manchester, Nice, Paris or Stockholm.
What these attacks had in common is that they targeted open public spaces. While the risk of such attacks can never be entirely eliminated, there are concrete operational measures Member States can take with the support of the EU in order to better protect public spaces from the threat of terrorism.
In 2017, the European Commission adopted a dedicated Action Plan to support the protection of public spaces with a specific focus on places of worship.
The new EU Security Union Strategy for the period 2020-2025, announced by the Commission on 24 July 2020, aims to support Member States in fostering security for all European citizens. The strategy presents tools and measures to be developed in order to tackle all security concerns and threats, online and offline, internal and external, from radicalisation, to terrorism and organised crime, security of public spaces, including places of worship, illegal content online, hybrid threats and cybersecurity. The Strategy indicates an enhanced public-private cooperation for the protection of public spaces, including places of worship, with funding, exchange of best practices, specific guidance and recommendations. It calls Member States to take appropriate action aligned with the 2018 Council Declaration in order to protect its Jewish communities: “Attacks inspired by racism must be a cause for serious concern: the deadly anti-Semitic terror attacks in Halle were a reminder of the need to step up the response in line with the 2018 Council Declaration.”
Find more information about the European Agenda for Security here.
Prevention of Radicalisation
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In 2011 the Commission established the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN), bringing together frontline and grassroots practitioners, who are often best placed to identify early warning signs of radicalisation and to address them. The network brings together a multitude of different actors – NGOs, civil society, schools and police, as well as regional coordinators or national policy-makers.
In 2015, the Commission strengthened the network by setting up the RAN Centre of Excellence to develop more tar- geted guidance, support and counselling services to stakeholders in Member States and increase expertise and skills of different actors.
The Commission has allocated €25 million over 4 years to support the work of the RAN and will launch a call for tender for the period 2020-2024 to continue the work.
The RAN connects around 5,000 front-line practitioners. There are 10 RAN Working groups: Communication and Narratives, Education, EXIT, Health and Social Care, Prison and Probation, Local, Police, Remembrance of Victims, Youth, Families and Communities, and RAN Young.
Find out more about the Radicalisation Awareness Network here.
Disinformation and conspiracies
The exposure of citizens to large-scale disinformation, including misleading or outright false information, is a major challenge for Europe. The Commission is working to implement a clear, comprehensive and broad set of actions to tackle the spread and impact of online disinformation in Europe and ensure the protection of European values and democratic systems.
The European Union has outlined an Action Plan to step up efforts to counter disinformation in Europe and beyond focusing on four key areas. This plan serves to build EU's capabilities and strengthen cooperation between Member States by:
- improving detection, analysis and exposure of disinformation
- stronger cooperation and joint responses to threats
- enhancing collaboration with online platforms and industry to tackle disinformation
- raising awareness and improve societal resilience
In particular during the COVID19 pandemic antisemitic conspiracies spread rapidly online. Several Commission services are working with online platforms to counter disinformation.
Please fine here more information about the Commission work on disinformation
EUvsDisinfo is the flagship project of the European External Action Service’s East StratCom Task Force. It was established in 2015 to better forecast, address, and respond to the Russian Federation’s ongoing disinformation campaigns affecting the European Union, its Member States, and countries in the shared neighbourhood.
EUvsDisinfo’s core objective is to increase public awareness and understanding of the Kremlin’s disinformation operations, and to help citizens in Europe and beyond develop resistance to digital information and media manipulation.