Europe Fights (Almost) All Forms of Racism: The Totem and Taboo
A European anti-racism body has made policing practices and alleged racial profiling central to its agenda, promoting concepts critics say ignore crime demographics.
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, known by its French acronym ECRI, held its 101st plenary meeting in Strasbourg in early July, according to Valeurs Actuelles. The gathering of the Council of Europe body brought together multiple partners to review the direction of anti-racist policy across the continent.
Established in 1993 and operational since 1994, ECRI comprises 46 members, one representative from each Council of Europe member state. The organization is mandated to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance from a human rights perspective. It conducts monitoring and evaluation activities while issuing recommendations to member states.
Police Profiling Takes Center Stage
Since 2020, following the George Floyd affair in the United States, policing practices have emerged as one of ECRI’s primary work streams. The body issued a declaration that year on racist police abuses, including racial profiling and systemic racism. This focus has remained constant, with last week’s meeting devoted entirely to racial profiling, though no new publications have yet been made public.
In a 2011 recommendation, ECRI defined racial profiling as the use by police, without objective and reasonable justification, of grounds such as race, color, language, religion, nationality or national or ethnic origin in control, surveillance or investigation activities. Despite the overrepresentation of foreign nationals in certain types of crime, any presumption based on this reality is rejected by ECRI, which considers it cannot constitute objective justification and even advocates for sanctions.
Brussels Embraces Intersectionality
These ideological recommendations find resonance in policies championed by the European Union. In January, the EU unveiled its anti-racism action plan for 2026-2030. The roughly 20-page document is anchored in the framework of the Union of Equality, presented as a commitment to systematically promote equality, non-discrimination and fundamental rights across all EU policies.
The strategy for coming years relies on an intersectional policy approach to account for the complexity of inequalities faced by people experiencing multiple and overlapping forms of discrimination. It also aims to identify and combat structural racism by strengthening legal tools, particularly in the digital space. The document calls for continued efforts within administration and public service, and warns against biases that may affect artificial intelligence systems, raising concerns about algorithmic discrimination as these technologies play a growing role in decision-making processes.
One Conspicuous Omission
Ambitious in its objectives and proactive in its approach, the plan claims to want to combat all forms of racism. It specifically cites racism against Black people, anti-Roma prejudice, antisemitism, anti-Asian racism and hatred toward Muslims. Conspicuously absent from the document, however, is any mention of anti-white racism.
As Valeurs Actuelles notes, refusing to name a reality is a way of denying its existence, at least to a certain extent. The omission underscores how European institutions selectively frame discrimination issues, embracing fashionable academic theories while ignoring inconvenient realities that fail to fit predetermined narratives about power and victimhood.
With information from Valeurs Actuelles
