European Commission building, Brussels. Photo: Pixabay
The European Commission said on Thursday that it had sent letters of formal notice to a series of member states, including Belgium and Sweden for failing to correctly transpose EU rules relating to the fight against racism and xenophobia.
Published: February 20, 2021, 10:21 am
Ex-General: Merkel has shaken the foundations of Germany
European Commission: French speakers denounce domination of English
European Commissioner of the Interior defends asylum after ECHR ruling
EU hands over another €500 million to Turkey to stop migrants
Germany's female leaders disband elite special forces unitThe letter of formal notice is only the first step in the infringement procedure that the EU executive can launch against states that violate the rules or do not incorporate them in time into their national legislation. The state must respond to the letter in the months that follow, and if the disagreement remains, the procedure can lead to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
In this case, we are talking about a 2008 framework decision, which was to be transposed within two years. It aimed to ensure that across the EU, certain serious manifestations of racism and xenophobia would be punishable by “effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal sanctions”. The text defined certain behaviours that should be considered everywhere as a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment.
Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Poland and Sweden are being called to order for various reasons. Belgium is criticized because its legal framework “does not guarantee that racist and xenophobic motivation is taken into consideration as an aggravating circumstance by national courts for all offenses committed”. They therefore do not guarantee “that hate crimes lead to effective and adequate prosecution,” the Commission said.
All rights reserved. You have permission to quote freely from the articles provided that the source (www.freewestmedia.com) is given. Photos may not be used without our consent.
Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.
Keep your language polite. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in, for example, Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.
If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violations of any law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.
If your comments are subject to preview by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.
We reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.
At the end of March an American journalist Brenna T. Smith published a controversial article which consisted of revealing the personal data of people who took part in the storming of the US Capitol on January 6.
The actions of the White House to support its European allies during the pandemic raise questions both from political elites who are loyal to the United States and from those who represent anti-American positions.
CopenhagenPeople who immigrate to Denmark illegally and seek asylum will soon be transported 700 km away and placed in a Danish asylum centre in a Central African country.
MoscowThe developers of Sputnik V, the Russian vaccine against Covid-19, have urged health regulators to look into a University of Oxford study on the correlation between the occurrence of rare blood clotting and vaccines currently injected on a mass scale globally.
BerlinAccording to media reports, the member states of the European Union have agreed on a uniform vaccination card for travel within the Union. The EU states are therefore defining their position on the so-called "Green Passport", which should be operational by the end of June.
DresdenDr. Jan Moldenhauer is a member of the AfD state board in Saxony-Anhalt and district chairman of the AfD Magdeburg. In May 2018 he published a study entitled "Japan's policy of zero immigration - a role model for Germany?"
ParisGlobal funds for development aid reached a new high in the past year. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) announced in Paris on Tuesday, that public funds from donor countries rose to more than 161 billion US dollars (around 136 billion euros).
GöttingenCorona variants, against which current vaccines are less effective or no longer effective at all, can also arise in Germany, according to researchers. This is particularly possible with the virus spreading in a third wave, according to Stefan Pöhlmann and Markus Hoffmann from the Leibniz Institute for Primate Research in Göttingen.
According to a study, the absence of dark-skinned goalkeepers in the Bundesliga is due to racial discrimination not talent. The reason why individual clubs do not employ black goalkeepers, could be a coincidence, explained integration researcher Tina Nobis from Humboldt University in Berlin. "That there isn't a single black goalkeeper in the Bundesliga, means it's not a coincidence."
StrasbourgIt is the first time that the European Court of Human Rights has dealt with the issue of compulsory vaccination. According to the ECHR, the mandatory vaccinations are in the "best interests" of society. According to experts, the judgment could play a role in the enforcement of Covid vaccinations.
