Commission proposes to extend the list of ‘EU crimes' to hate speech and hate crime

Today (9 December), the European Commission is presenting an initiative to extend the list of ‘EU crimes' to hate speech and hate crime, as announced by President von der Leyen in her 2020 State of the Union speech.

Hate speech and hate crime have seen a sharp rise across Europe and have become a particularly serious and worrying phenomenon – offline and online. Common EU action is needed to tackle this EU-wide challenge. However, currently there is no legal basis to criminalise hate speech and hate crime at EU level. The existing list of EU crimes in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) needs to be extended to ensure minimum common rules on how to define criminal offences and sanctions applicable in all EU Member States. Today's initiative is the first step in the process of extending the list of EU crimes. The next step would be for member states to approve the initiative, before the Commission can present a legislative proposal.

https://www.eureporter.co/eu-2/hate-...nd-hate-crime/