16:56 20 January 2024
European Union will fight against hate speech
The European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the Council to address the regulation of hate speech as a crime within this parliamentary term. According to Article 83(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Parliament, and the Council can jointly 'establish minimum standards relating to the definition of criminal offenses and penalties in areas of particularly serious crime with a cross-border dimension.'
Such crimes listed in the article include terrorism, human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and children, illegal drug or arms trafficking, money laundering, corruption, counterfeiting of money, cybercrime, and organized crime. The Parliament would like hate speech and hate-motivated crimes to join this list.
Members of the European Parliament noted that currently, issues concerning crimes committed out of hatred are regulated independently by the member states. EU law, however, only pertains to crimes committed on the grounds of race, skin color, religion, national and ethnic origin.
