EU rejects eastern states' call to outlaw denial of crimes by communist regimes

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

The European commission has rejected calls from eastern Europe to introduce a so-called double genocide law that would criminalise the denial of crimes perpetrated by communist regimes, in the same way many EU countries ban the denial of the Holocaust.

Last week six countries wrote to Viviane Reding, the European justice commissioner, calling for the "public condoning, denial and gross trivialisation of totalitarian crimes" to be punished.

Foreign ministers from Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic said communist crimes "should be treated according to the same standards" as those of Nazi regimes, notably in those countries with Holocaust denial laws.

But the EU executive will say in a report due that opinion is too divided on the matter and that there is no legal basis allowing Brussels to act.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/21/european-commission-communist-crimes-nazism

[RZM]

1. Interesting

I'm surprised that the article didn't mention the complex motivations behind holocaust denial laws. In many places they have been enacted in part as a legal weapon against extremist far-right parties, whose members frequently deny/minimize the Holocaust. Making that illegal is one way to limit their ability to express their views without appearing too hostile to free speech.