19. April 07
The Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union reached a general approach on a Framework Decision on Combating Racism and Xenophobia.
The Framework Decision entails a declaration of the Council, which invites the European Commission to examine and to report to the Council within two years whether an additional legal instrument of the European Union is needed to condemn crimes of communism.
Franco Frattini, the Vice President of the Committee, said in a press conference following the meeting of the Council that he intends to organise a public hearing in a <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Baltic State where historians, legal researchers and civic associations are invited. Slovenia, which will assume the EU presidency in the first half of 2008, promised to organise an international conference in Ljubljana, investigating the possibilities of legal assessment of the crimes of communism. According to commissioner Frattini, after the future public events he plans on publishing a Green Paper of Commission, which opens up a political debate for making an assessment of totalitarian regimes.
According to Estonian Justice Minister Rein Lang, it is a major breakthrough in the European Union to an issue that is important for us. “For the first time the issue of crimes of communism reaches the political level in the European Union,” said Minister Lang.
The Framework Decision needs to be approved by the parliaments of seven more Member States before it can enter into force. In Estonia the issue will be discussed, at the request of the Government, by the European Union’s Affairs Committee hopefully in the first half of May.
