Commission presents new Anti-Racism Strategy to continue building a true Union of Equality

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

Today, the European Commission adopted the new EU Anti-Racism Strategy, calling for a Europe free from racism where individuals can thrive, fully participate in society and contribute to its stability and prosperity.

The strategy builds on the EU Anti-Racism action plan 2020-2025. Over the past five years, the EU has made significant progress in tackling racism, particularly by addressing barriers created by racial discrimination and by integrating anti-racism efforts throughout all relevant EU policies. Despite this progress, the latest Eurobarometer on discrimination reveals that almost two in three citizens still view racial discrimination as a widespread issue in their countries.

The new strategy aims to combat racism in all its forms by:

• Ensuring the full implementation and enforcement of EU anti-discrimination laws.
• Continuing to tackle barriers and foster inclusion in education, employment, healthcare, and housing.
• Building anti-racism partnerships at all levels of society.

Key actions in the strategy:

The new strategy will strengthen the enforcement of the existing anti-discrimination laws. The application of the Racial Equality Directive from 2000 will be assessed to identify implementation gaps and consider stronger sanctions where necessary. The framework to tackle hate speech and hate crime will be strengthened, notably by empowering people, ensuring the rights of victims’ through existing EU legislation such as the Victims’ Rights Directive, and by considering harmonising the definitions of online hate offences, while fully respecting freedom of expression. The strategy will also support equality bodies in Member States to carry out their vital work, by ensuring standardsare met.

Anti-racism efforts will be even more embedded in everyday life, across society. An EU-wide campaign on equality will be launched to raise awareness and engage citizens across the EU to promote inclusion. Ongoing initiatives will help secure equal access in key areas like education, employment, housing and healthcare. For example, the Commission will support Member States to eliminate bias in healthcare practices, and to improve access to employment opportunities. It will also carry out a study to assess risks and solutions in terms of housing for the most vulnerable groups. The strategy will also contribute to improving the collection, analysis and use of data on equality, in line with national legislative frameworks,to better understand and tackle discrimination.

Achieving a Union free from racism and racial discrimination is a joint effort. The strategy highlights the need for cooperation at every level of society. International organisations, European institutions and agencies, Member States, candidate countries, local and regional authorities, equality bodies, the private sector and civil society must take action. The work of the Anti-racism coordinator will continue to promote constructive dialogue and interaction among EU institutions, Member States, civil society and academia. Moreover, under the next Multiannual Financial Framework, the Commission proposed to increase support to anti–racism civil society organisations under the Democracy, Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values strand of AgoraEU.

Next steps

The EU Anti-Racism Strategy 2026-2030 aims to combat all forms of racism, including anti-Black racism, antigypsyism, antisemitism, anti-Asian racism and anti-Muslim hatred. To this end, the Commission will support Member States in implementing their own national policies, measures and plans and will take action where anti-discrimination laws are not being respected.

The Racial Equality Directive application will be assessed in the fourth report to be published in 2026. The report will particularly focus on enforcement and application of AI tools where they may cause algorithm-driven discrimination.

The EU Anti-Racism Strategy is strongly aligned with other existing and forthcoming EU equality strategies. The implementation of its actions will be monitored and a mid-term review will be presented as a follow-up.

Background

The Commission remains fully committed to a Union of Equality where individuals can thrive free from discrimination. The EU Anti-Racism Strategy 2026-2030 is one of the deliverables of President Ursula von der Leyen‘s political guidelines and Commissioner Hadja Lahbib‘s mission letter.

The Racial Equality Directive was proposed in 2000 and, since then, three reports were published on its implementation. The new binding standards for equality bodies were adopted in May 2024 to guarantee the independence, powers and resources of equality bodies across the EU. The Code of conduct+ also strengthened the way online platforms deal with content that EU and national laws define as illegal hate speech.

The Strategy builds on the EU Anti-Racism action plan 2020-2025, which laid the groundwork for setting the path to combatting racial discrimination across the Union. The action plan also called upon Member States to develop and adopt national action plans against racism. The Strategy also takes into account the recommendations of the European Citizens’ Panel on Combatting Hatred in Society composed of 150 randomly selected citizens. 

For more information

EU Anti-Racism Strategy 2026-2030

Report on Implementation of the EU Anti-racism Action Plan

OECD report on Combatting Discrimination in the European Union