AM-144-2 to B-R4: “United in diversity”, but for real this time

How did we come to this point?

The rise of the far-right across Europe is a new manifestation of the
continent’s struggle with its colonial and racist legacy and how European
society still fails to address these issues. EU Member States, like Hungary, the
Netherlands, Germany and France, are reinstating border checks and straying away
from the

principle of free movement. The reintroduction of border checks is not just a
threat to free movement but increases racial profiling and discrimination in the
EU bloc. As noted by PICUM, research in 2021 from the EU Fundamental Rights
Agency showed that people from an ethnic minority are disproportionately
affected by police stops. A 2014 study showed that 79% of border guards surveyed
at airports rated ethnicity as a helpful indicator to identifying people
attempting to enter the country in an irregular manner. This is at odds with the
European Commission’s commitments under the recent Anti-racism Action Plan
(ARAP).

The United Kingdom (until mid-2024), Italy and the Netherlands set up mechanisms
to outsource the sheltering of refugees to third countries (respectively Rwanda,
Albania and Uganda), all with questionable safety records and possible human
rights violations. The Netherlands plans to send its non-national prisoners to
Estonia. Police in most European countries still enforce heavier penalties
against activists of colour for the same offences as their white peers, with
cases of torture and abuse by police being recorded by human rights
organisations.

Such policies are a result of the lack of representation of racialised and
ethnic-minoritised people in positions of political decision-making, while they
continue to suffer from the unequal consequences of economic policies and
heightened abuse, motivated by racial hate, both online and in real life. Civic
space also continues to shrink, to the detriment of those who defend and
advocate anti-racism, racial equity and social justice.

Our work is not over

As Greens, we believe that institutions, including the European Parliament, in
combination with grassroots activism, can and do bring about the societal and
political change we need. Policies at the European level, created thanks to the
push from civil society in combination with the tasks of the elected officials
of the

European Green Party member parties and other allies in the European Parliament,
have enabled remarkable advances in the previous EU mandate.

The European Green Party’s values are represented by the actions and policy
proposals that stand in solidarity with racialised and ethnic-minoritised people
throughout Europe. In the past, Green Members of the European Parliament (MEPs)
have pushed a mandate for the Anti-Discrimination Directive to be

unblocked by the Council. This successfully incorporated countering racism and
discrimination by law enforcement and AI in recent legislation, including the
revision of the Framework Decision on combating certain forms and expressions of
racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law, and successfully adopted various
resolutions on anti-racism and intersectional discrimination.

As the European Green Party, we welcome the efforts of the Green Group in
advocating for racial justice and anti-racism internally vis-a-vis European
Commissioners, the Parliament and its committees. The Group has recently managed
to include the creation of the new anti-racism strategy in Commission President
von der Leyen’s commitments ahead of her election into her second cabinet as an
‘urgent action

to protect democracy and equality’, in line with the European Green Party’s 2024
EU manifesto.

This upcoming mandate brings several crucial priorities and key concerns,
including those highlighted above, without forgetting the re-establishment and
work of the Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup; renewal of the ARAP and
ensuring its proper implementation; the election of the second von der Leyen

Commission and ensuring its accountability; the intensification of AI and
evaluation of the AI Act; and the intensification of the climate crisis and thus
the exacerbation of climate racism and the rise of climate refugees.

Therefore, as we continue the fight for an anti-racist and racially just Europe
that truly is united in diversity and recall our resolution “The EU has a
diversity and inclusion problem. It's high time for a change. Let's be that
change!” adopted at the 37th EGP Congress in 2023, we, the European Green Party,
commit to:

• Continue to push back against right-wing governments and policies which
  seek to discriminate, dehumanise, and demonise racialised and ethnic-
  minoritised communities.

• Hold accountable the second von der Leyen Commission in its commitment to
  racial justice and the renewal of the ARAP, and to further ensure the
  meaningful and effective implementation of the renewed ARAP.

• Continue advocating for the unblocking of the Anti-Racism Directive by the
  Council and pushing for its adoption and implementation within the coming
  mandate.

• Ensure the long-term financial, political, and organisational support of
  ARDI and to further support its work in the coming mandate.

• Pursue a political and societal climate welcoming migrants and refugees
  and pushing back against often discriminatory policies, be it foreign or
  domestic, aimed at racialised and ethnic-minoritised communities and
  communities of migrant origin. A migrant-first politics seeks to dismantle
  policies that externalise the EU border regime, discriminate or oppress
  migrants in visa and asylum processes or at the border, undermine EU law
  and free movements (i.e. internal border controls and opt-outs), and
  further entrench Fortress Europe and Frontex. Instead, we advocate for
  welcoming and humanitarian alternatives that prioritise the rights of
  migrants and refugees enshrined in nternational law.

• Pursue an equitable and people-centred foreign policy, where countries are
  treated equally and maximum focus is given on peace and equitable
  development cooperation. Herein, the three-way test of recourse to
  military means of conflict prevention and management, as set out in the
  Charter of the European Greens, is upheld.

• Actively engage in political and societal discussions on climate racism
  and extractivism and meaningfully incorporate such analysis in our work in
  parliaments and other institutions, as stressed in the aforementioned
  diversity and inclusion resolution. This means acknowledging that
  countries and people in the Global South who contribute the least to the
  climate crisis are those most affected by its consequences and have their
  resources taken away by the Global North in the pursuit of innovation and
  climate adaptation, thereby increasing their risk of suffering under the
  climate crisis. Within Europe, we acknowledge that racialised and ethnic-
  minoritised communities are often disproportionately subjected to the
  consequences of the climate crisis or neglected or discriminated against
  in climate action.

• Meaningfully address the destructive legacy of European countries in its
  former colonies and current dominions and territories in the pursuit of
  transitional and reparatory justice. This includes but is not limited to
  reparations in the form of formal apologies, debt cancellation, monetary
  restitution, mancipatory development aid, and the return of cultural
  artefacts and human remains to the indigenous peoples in their land of
  origin. At the EU level, we must meaningfully engage with our partners in
  the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Community of Latin American and
  Caribbean States (CELAC), and the African Union, who have initiated calls
  for and attempts at dialogue for such reparations vis-a-vis the European
  Union.

• Advocate for the continuation and expansion of funding for anti-racism
  organisations at both the local and international level.

• Call for the protection of anti-racism organisations from dis- and
  malinformation and racial abuse, through the explicit commitment of our
  institutions to establish channels that denounce such practices and
  allocate structures to prevent them in all contexts, including in the
  public institutions themselves.

• Condemn the acts and enabling of corporate media in perpetuating and
  encouraging racial and sexual abuse against racialised and ethnic-
  minoritised communities through the dehumanisation and demonisation of
  such minoritised communities and individuals therefrom. We advocate for
  
  the establishment of European-wide obligations and standards on media
  companies regarding non-discriminatory, equitable, and correct
  representations of minoritised communities.

• Strengthen tools to tackle racism and racial abuse in the digital space,
  too, through the codification in law and the mandating of the currently
  optional EU Code of Conduct on countering illegal hate speech online for
  social media corporations and through the adoption of specialised
  legislation on cyber-racism amending or supporting the Digital Services
  Act and the Framework Decision on combating racism and xenophobia, drawing
  from the Australian model.

• Meaningfully tackle Islamophobia and anti-Semitism within the European
  Green Party’s member parties, the European Parliament, and across the
  wider European society.

• Introduce and meaningfully execute programmes to ensure an inclusive
  culture and increase and sustain racial diversity in political and
  organisational positions of power within member parties and the wider
  Green family, and push for them to be implemented in the European
  Parliament, echoing the aforementioned diversity and inclusion resolution.

• Improve internal democratic processes within the EGP itself, our transparency, and, above all, honesty, because otherwise, we will not be able to sovereignly challenge authoritarian leaders as long as our internal processes are similar to the processes against political opponents, independent journalists, NGOs and others in countries where we accuse leaders of authoritarianism.