EU: Negotiations on EU legislation against racism and xenophobia are to be relaunched in the wake of the public outcry caused last week by Britain?s Prince Harry?s fancy dress outfit with its swastika armband.
A Luxembourg EU Presidency source said that talks on a law combating racism and xenophobia, which have been stalled since early 2003, are to be revived. Luxembourg?s decision to put this issue back on the political agenda follows calls by senior German politicians for a Europe-wide ban on the Nazi symbols.
"All of Europe has suffered in the past because of the crimes of the Nazis, therefore it would be logical for Nazi symbols to be banned all over Europe," said Ms Silvana Koch-Mehrin, vice -president of the liberal group in the European Parliament.
Mrs Koch-Mehrin also called for the issue to be addressed at the next meeting of EU justice ministers, on January 27th and 28th. The general secretary of the CSU opposition conservative party, Mr Markus Soder, said "in a Europe of peace and liberty there can be no room for Nazi symbols".
For its part, the European Commission has not ruled out a Europe-wide ban.
A spokesman for EU justice commissioner Mr Franco Frattini said yesterday that "it may be worth looking at the possibility of a Europe-wide ban, to explore that possibility at least".
However, such a ban would be extremely difficult as it opens the whole question of freedom of speech. Legislators would have to try and codify what would be termed as offensive usage of Nazi symbols so that people using them satirically to lampoon Nazi beliefs would not suddenly find themselves criminalised.
There are also several other issues to be considered, such as which Nazi symbols would be banned and whether such a ban would cover symbols from other regimes like Soviet communism.
The debate sparked by Prince Harry?s choice of costume comes at a particularly sensitive time ahead of next week?s 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz.
It also follows a report in 2004 by the EU?s anti-racism agency which found a strong increase in anti-Semitic attacks across Europe over the past years.