European Parliament Working Group on Antisemitism

On 19 April a meeting of the European Parliament Working Group on Antisemitism was held in Brussels.

MEPs from various Member States and political groups, as well as advisors, staffers and NGOs representatives gathered to focus on the issue of religious extremists and the rise of far-right parties as a threat to Europe communities. A documentary named “Europe in crisis – A shattered heaven” was screened, followed by a debate with various Members of the European Parliament, including Mr Lopez Aguilar (Chairman of the group), Mr Heinz K. Becker and Ms Cecilia Wikström (Co-chairs of the group). Vidhya Ramalingan, expert on radicalisation issues, addressed the audience.

The Chair of the Working Group MEP Juan Fernando Lopez-Aguilar (Spain), opened the discussion by mentioning the vicious cycle of violence that is threatening European cohesion. The Vice-Chairman, MEP Heinz Becker (Austria), requested the improvement of EU legislation in order to effectively tackle antisemitism and stressed the urgency of following-up on solutions to the issues on which the documentary shed light. Mr. Becker also referred to the urgent need for each Member State to adopt the working definition of antisemitism.

The comments were followed by a speech by Ms. Vidhya Ramalingam, Director of Moonshot CVE, an organization developing innovative methods in response to extremism and community violence who centred her message on the tools used by far-right movements.

During its upcoming plenary meetings from 23-26 May in Bucharest, the IHRA will focus on Holocaust-related issues, including the topic of a working definition of antisemitism.