After countless failures due to dissension between governments, the Commission has announced its intention to present a new legislative proposal against racism and xenophobia during the first semester of 2006, when the revolving presidency of the Council will be held by Austria. Ever since the late 1990s every attempt of the Executive to gain the approval of a European document on combating racism has been scuppered in the Council of Ministers due to the wide divergences of member states, especially in terms of the possible “definitions” of the various phenomena involved. During a press conference, the spokesman of the EU Commissioner for Justice and Internal Affairs Franco Frattini stressed that the proposed new EU document on racism and xenophobia “cannot be allowed to fail”. He said that the experiences of the European Centre against Racism in Vienna and careful analysis of the concerns of member states would serve to revive the proposal.
