The legal grounds for inclusive EU legislation against bias violence and hatred

ILGA-Europe, as well as many other anti-discrimination and human rights organisations have repeatedly raised their concerns as regards the need to develop a common legal definition of hate/bias crimes in the European Union. ILGA-Europe had first mentioned the necessity to tackle all hate crimes by means of EU criminal legislation provisions in 2008, in its Response to the European Commission’s consultation “Freedom, security and justice: what will be the future?”

In view of this political position of the organisation, it became necessary to consider the legal and political conditions of the adoption of further EU legislative provisions in this area, and to prepare advocacy strategies, making full use of all the EU treaties following the entry into force of the Lisbon treaty. This research on the legal grounds and the political arguments for inclusive EU legislation against bias violence and hatred is aimed at informing ILGA-Europe and its allies’ reflection and political proposals in this policy field.