Action against racism: action plan

The Parliament in adopting its report by Mr. Arie OOSTLANDER (EPP, NL) on the Commission's 'Action Plan against Racism', regretted the fact that the Plan contains few specific proposals with coirresponding objectives, time-scales or funding. The reports calls on the Commission : - to support, in particular, projects of groups suffering discrimination who are fighting racism, to increase their resilience and to counteract the causes of negative stereotyping; - to continue providing assistance in the future - with a low threshold - to small local NGOs, which often organise dynamic and innovative initiatives aimed at promoting a multicultural, tolerant society and combating racism and xenophobia; - to pay close attention to the way in which voluntary sector networks interact; - to submit a report on the management of the budget line on combating racism, with particular attention to : the priorities in granting subsidies, the decision-making process and the criteria for subsidies, in particular a review of the ceiling of 25 000 ECU and the opening up of funding possibilities to applicant countries; - to evaluate all existing Community legislation and programmes as a means of developing a mainstreaming approach to combating racism and discrimination; - to submit to the Council and the Parliament a communication on the policy it is pursuing to ensure reasonable representation of racial and ethnic minority groups in its own staff; - to use the starting Line Group proposals as a contribution to its discussions on new legislation to combat racism and to promote equal rights; - to take account, in proposals for legislation, of the fundamental differences in the reasons for discrimination, as well as the specific nature of the discrimination in different areas of life; - to proceed at the earliest opportunity with a proposal for a Directive against racial discrimination under Article 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty (and calls on the Council, in the meantime, to include an article prohibiting discrimination in all new pieces of legislation in the employment and social field); - to draw up a Code of Conduct, in conjunction with the social partners, on measures to combat race discrimination at the workplace, with a view to establishing policies and practices for improving the integration of ethnic minorities and migrants into the labour market; - to submit, in co-operation with the Committee of the Regions, to the European Parliament and the Council a proposal for a code of conduct relating to non-discrimination in the housing market. The Parliament, furthermore, urges the Council, the Commission and the Member States to give special priority in all EU external activities to combating ethnic hatred and racism. It also calls on the Council to draw up a common position to ensure a co-ordinated and coherent EU strategy at the World Conference on Racism to be organised by the UN in 2000. The Parliament also reminds the Commission, in the context of accession negotiations, that it takes particular note of the treatment of minorities in applicant countries. Lastly, it calls on the Council and the Commission to point outto third countries that their former subjects have the right to live freely in the society to which they have migrated and to become completely integrated, without suffering any interference from the government of their countries of origin.�