Publication of anti-semitism report: MEP welcomes rethink

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 4th Dec 2003

Following demands in the European Parliament's justice and home affairs committee, the director of the EU's race watchdog has undertaken to reconsider the controversial decision to shelve a report on anti-semitism.

Beate Winkler, director of the EU Monitoring Centre on Racism, Xenophobia and Anti-Semitism (EUMC) came under intense questioning from committee members.

Liberal Democrat European justice spokeswoman and MEP for London Baroness Sarah Ludford was the first to raise the matter in this committee last week, when a European Commission official told her that the 18-member board of the Centre had unanimously decided the report was of too poor quality to publish.

After hearing Ms Winkler this week, Baroness Ludford commented:

"With the report now unofficially in the public domain it is essential that the EUMC also make their arguments public. I would like to see the report published with a commentary from the EUMC explaining in detail why it took the view that the report's quality was too poor to publish initially.

"I do not question the integrity of the Board members on this issue, but I do think they have been remarkably inept. They have published three reports on Islamophobia and none on anti-semitism. They have allowed too much time to pass while there has been growing alarm about anti-semitic attacks and verbal propaganda, not seeming to grasp that if they rejected the Berlin researchers' work they had an urgent duty to produce something better."

"It is essential that we have a full and frank debate about tackling resurgent anti-semitism in the EU. In such a debate there is no room for even suspicion about censorship."

"The bottom line must be that there is NO excuse at all for verbal or physical attacks on Jews or desecration of property, whatever the perpetrators' views on the Israel-Palestinian conflict."

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The report has appeared this week on the website of the French affiliate of the European Jewish Congress.

Since this Press Release the report has been released in draft form on the EUMC website.