The only country in Europe where Bob Purkiss has been spat at on the street for being black is Denmark. This small state, with a reputation for being liberal, has within the past decade become an unwelcoming place for black people, he says.
As the British vice-chairman of the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia in Vienna, Austria, he has travelled extensively within and without EU states.
He blames the increasing hostility towards minority ethnic groups in states such as Denmark, Germany and Austria on people's fears and hatred of "foreigners", whipped up by extreme-right or nationalist parties which blame the foreigners for stealing jobs.
Mr Purkiss has heard of racist incidents in Ireland, another small country with a reputation for being welcoming to all. And this information jars with his experience of the Irish in London, who have close links with Jamaicans. He says that when it comes to racism, Ireland is an "enigma". "There is a whisper going around the black community in Britain that Ireland is not displaying the sort of understanding that people would have expected of it in terms of anti-discrimination," he says.
Mr Purkiss was one of some 500 delegates at the European conference against racism this week in the Council of Europe's Strasbourg headquarters, the Palais de l'Europe. The council, set up in 1949 to defend human rights, hosted the three-day gathering which included government officials, parliamentarians and community and voluntary groups.
In his address to delegates at the opening session, the German Nobel laureate, Mr Gunter Grass, made an impassioned attack on his nation's inhuman treatment of asylum-seekers - an attack which had its German officials blushing deep red.
He asked whether the situation was any better in other European countries and concluded that the EU, including its prospective new members, increasingly sees itself as a fortress. As the conference wound down yesterday, such passion had given way to pragmatism.
Mr Purkiss was seated on a low couch in the council's main foyer. Around him, delegates rushed from workshop to fringe meeting to plenary session to put the finishing touches on goals that the council's 41 member-states agreed yesterday on combating racism through laws, policies, practices, education and information.
Irish delegates to the conference and at a preliminary gathering of non-governmental organisations, included officials from the Departments of Justice and Foreign Affairs and representatives of minority ethnic groups.
Sgt Declan Walsh from the Garda Racial and Intercultural Office has had the chance to hear from Roma groups about their needs and their links with Irish Travellers.
Martin Manguriko from the African Refugee Network has compared information on the treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers in Ireland with those in other countries. Some comparisons are favourable, others are not.
Martin Collins from Pavee Point National Traveller Resource Centre has worked closely with other Traveller organisations. He observes that, while Irish Travellers have benefited from the equality legislation and infrastructure put in place in recent years, there are areas where he is envious of the achievements of the Roma in mainland Europe.
"The Roma have achieved something that we haven't - they have achieved academically," he says. "They are lecturers in universities in France and Spain. Spanish Gypsies were members of the European Parliament a few years and in Romania and Hungary they are in the national parliament.
"In Ireland you could count on one hand the number of Travellers at university. We are envious that we haven't got there yet."
Philip Watt from the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, which advises the Department of Justice, says racism manifests itself in different ways in different countries. Ireland does not have the political parties or campaigning groups espousing anti-racist views that other European states, such as Austria and Belgium, have, nor has it experienced the same degree of racist violence witnessed in countries such as Germany.
He describes Irish racism as "more naive". "It's a challenge because people haven't really thought through the issues yet in Ireland and that means there are significant opportunities for us to avoid what's happening in the rest of Europe," he says.
But Mr Watt cautions that Ireland should not be too complacent in tackling the problem. His group will be involved in implementing a multimillion-pound public awareness campaign on the issue soon, which will borrow best practice from other countries.
Mr Purkiss says the problem with tackling racism and xenophobia at the level of 41 states is that countries are at different stages of development.
"In the UK, which has 25 years of history of anti-racist legislation and enforcement bodies, the level of awareness of anti-racist activities is high and debates on the issues are ongoing," he says.
"In Austria, on the other hand, with a government that is a coalition of the extreme right and the central conservative party, it clearly has difficulty having a debate about anti-racist activities - and even about racism - because it's still in denial."