EP elections 2014: Seven demands from the European Network Against Racism

The European
Network Against Racism (ENAR) is an EU-wide network of NGOs from all EU
Member States plus Iceland. The group works to combat racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and promotes equality of
treatment between European Union citizens and third country nationals.

Ahead of the upcoming EP elections, ENAR has released the
following statement:

Despite the ongoing economic, financial and now social
crisis that has been hitting the European Union since 2008, it has remained the
most prosperous area of the global economy, weighing 25% of the total wealth
generated in the world today. Yet one out of four EU citizens lives in or is at
risk of poverty. The next 50% are not particularly well-off, just surviving
above the waterline.

The next European Parliament to be elected in May 2014 has a
crucial role to play when it comes to reducing the entrenched inequalities
faced by its citizens and residents. Among these are ethnic minorities and
migrants who often face discrimination on multiple grounds: ethnic origin,
nationality, religion, social status, income, gender or age.

The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) therefore puts
forward seven
key demands for more equality in Europe to upcoming Members of the European
Parliament. Leading
Members of the European Parliament have already endorsed our demands
because they are convinced that they will lead to a better and more equal
Europe and are also sound, concrete and achievable.

Starting with the basics, we ask parties to open up their
lists and decision-making structures to ethnic minorities and migrants.
Fighting toxic and xenophobic political discourses and policies as well as
structural discrimination starts at home. Political decision makers need to be
exemplary to generate constructive emulation within the broader society. We
need a more diverse European Parliament. As a minimum, the next European
Parliament and its political groups should hire professionals from minority
communities.

“If you are not counted, you don’t count”: combating
discrimination begins with knowing the extent of it. Today, we only have
comparable and reliable Europe-wide equality data on the grounds of sex and
age. We need more. There are six grounds of discrimination covered by the EU
treaties and 17 by the Charter of Fundamental Rights – there is thus much room
for improvement in collecting and analyzing data about discrimination in
Europe. Ethnic and religious groups want to count and to use data to ask
governments to be accountable for their actions. These 60 million Europeans
deserve justice.

Racist violence has multiple effects not just on individual
victims, but also on their families and communities. They are not targeted
randomly by perpetrators, but because of who they are. The European Parliament
has a crucial role to play in bringing the European Commission and Member
States to support victims in seeking redress and avoiding re-victimization.

Equality at work is not just a matter of preventing
discrimination from happening. It is also about ensuring the workplace caters
for the needs of an increasingly diverse workforce. Accommodating diversity at
work will result in developing workers’ potential, employee retention, a safe
working environment and a better work-life balance.

The adoption of the European Framework for National Roma Integration
Strategies demonstrated the EU’s political will to fight discrimination against
its largest ethnic minority. Black Europeans, People of African Descent,
Muslims and Jews need to benefit from similar strategies to ensure their social
inclusion and protection from discrimination, and therefore contribute to the
overall reduction of poverty and exclusion in Europe.

Finally, we call for the continuation of the current
Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup in the European Parliament. This will
ensure MEPs committed to equality have a platform to voice and tackle
challenges relating to inequality and discrimination.

Our seven demands can contribute to a leap forward towards
equality in Europe. Time for commitment has come. The future of a diverse and
resilient Europe is at stake: we encourage parties and individual candidates to
endorse them and mainstream them in their own programs ahead – and after – the
elections.