Much as I support the ideal of European unity, I sometimes get the idea that the European Union– as a real, existing organization– is worse than useless.
For example The Financial Times reports:
The European Union’s racism watchdog has shelved a report on anti-semitism because the study concluded Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups were behind many of the incidents it examined.
…..
Following a spate of incidents in early 2002, the [European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia] commissioned a report from the Centre for Research on Anti-semitism at Berlin’s Technical University.
When the researchers submitted their work in October last year, however, the centre’s senior staff and management board objected to their definition of anti-semitism, which included some anti-Israel acts. The focus on Muslim and pro-Palestinian perpetrators, meanwhile, was judged inflammatory.
That’s one way to deal with the problem.
According to the center’s website:
The primary task of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) is to provide the Community and its Member States with objective, reliable and comparable information and data on racism, xenophobia, islamophobia and anti-Semitism at the European level in order to help the EU and its Member States to establish measures or formulate courses actions against racism and xenophobia.
As long as that information and data don’t actually upset anyone, I suppose.
