EU PLANS TO OUTLAW HOLOCAUST DENIAL

EUPolitix.com, Belgium
April 18 2007

Controversial plans to make denying or trivialising the Holocaust
a criminal offence are expected to be endorsed by EU member states
on Thursday.

Holocaust denial is a criminal offence in several European countries,
including Germany and Austria, but the draft law would extend this
to the rest of the EU.

The proposed legislation makes a contentious distinction between
inciting violence against racial or ethnic groups and against
religious groups.

It will make it mandatory for all EU member states to punish public
incitement to "violence or hatred directed against a group of persons
or a member of such a group defined by reference to race, colour
or religion.

Diplomats stress the provision had been carefully worded to tackle
only the denial of the Holocaust – the Nazi extermination of Jews
during WW2 – and the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

They say the wording was designed to avoid criminalising plays or
films about the Holocaust, such as the musical The Producers.

In an attempt to assuage Turkish fears, diplomats say the provisions
would not penalise the denial of mass killing of Armenians in the
aftermath of the 1915 collapse of the Ottoman empire.

EPP-ED leader Joseph Daul said he welcomes the initiative .

"At the same time I understand the reserves of some member states
who want similar treatment for people who deny the evils of communist
dictatorships."

UK Socialist MEP Claude Moraes, a former head of the influential
Commission for Racial Equality in the UK, said hopes the proposal
will be adopted when EU justice ministers discuss it on Thursday.

"I fully back this plan. It is extremely welcome and the centrepiece
of a framework decision on race. It should be widely supported by
anyone who wants to crackdown on anti-Semitism."