Antisemitism reporting across EU lacks reliable data, report finds

A new report on Tuesday (27 January) to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day calls out EU member states for not addressing antisemitism sufficiently due to inadequacies in monitoring and recording.

The report from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) finds most EU countries fail to address the issue because they lack proper data.

Antisemitism within the bloc has risen since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and the subsequent Israeli military destruction of Gaza.

In 2024, 96 percent of respondents to an FRA survey said they had encountered antisemitism in the last year in Europe. More than half (64 percent) faced it “all the time”. Less than 20 percent of respondents believed their governments fight antisemitism effectively.

The report says that a lack of reliable data is an obstacle to fighting antisemitism. The agency found that the national capitals have various definitions of what an antisemitic incident is, and do not collect sufficient data on discrimination.

This led to some member states not reporting a single incident.

Regular national surveys in all member states would allow countries to better tailor their efforts in effectively countering antisemitism.

Additionally, antisemitism is not always recognised as such. Reported hate crime is not always connected to discrimination against Jews. The FRA calls for more support and training for police officers to sufficiently know about antisemitic bias.

According to the report, closer cooperation between police, judiciary, civil society, tech companies, human rights bodies and Jewish organisations in every country, but also at a European level, is necessary.

By law, EU member states are obliged to ensure non-discrimination for everyone. This is enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty of the EU and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.

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