Ban on Holocaust denial will not curb civil liberties: EU diplomats

Apr 17, 2007, 15:03 GMT

Brussels - Planned new rules to criminalize racism and xenophobia in the European Union will not force member states to change standards on freedom of expression, EU diplomats said Tuesday.

Under the new proposals, hate declarations referring to religion such as 'Kill the Jews' or 'Kill the Christians' would remain unpunished in EU countries where such statements are not criminalized, the diplomats said.

They indicated that Britain and the Nordic countries had blocked attempts by current EU president Germany to push through tougher rules on inciting violence against a specific group or person.

EU justice and interior ministers are expected to discuss the controversial plans at a meeting in Luxembourg later this week.

Germany, which currently runs the agenda-setting EU presidency, wants to use its term at the bloc's helm to harmonize EU-wide differences on combating racism and xenophobia in the 27-member bloc.

However, EU diplomats said that the planned rules only aimed to achieve a 'minimum level of harmonization' as the differences in national legal systems had to be respected.

Germany views a common EU law as a moral obligation, but countries like Britain, Ireland and the Scandinavian states resist unified legislation as a violation of civil liberties.

Under the text being debated, EU countries would set jail terms of at least one to three years for 'publicly inciting to violence or hatred ... directed against a group of persons or a member of such a group defined by reference to race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin.'

EU diplomats also said that a German proposal to push through new rules which would make denying the Holocaust - the mass killing of Jews by Nazis and Nazi supporters - a crime in the EU, would not cover denying the massacre of Armenians in World War I.

Turkey denies that the killing of up to one million Armenians constituted genocide, putting their deaths down to ethnic strife, disease and famine, and has prosecuted historians and journalists for calling it genocide.

In addition, the proposed EU rules would not make denying crimes against humanity under the Stalin regime punishable, diplomats said.

The Baltic states want the EU to make it a crime to deny the abuses of the Stalinist regime in the former Soviet Union.

The proposed rules would also apply to people 'publicly condoning, denying, or grossly trivialising crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes' as defined by international crime courts.

Citing its 'particular historic responsibility' due to its Nazi past, Germany has said it wants EU member states to adopt the proposed legislation before it ends its term at the EU helm at the end of June.

Two years ago, Luxembourg tried to use its EU presidency to push through legislation to unify legal standards for Holocaust denial, but was blocked by Italy on the grounds that the proposed rules breached freedom of speech.

Laws against denying the Holocaust already exist in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Spain.