EU drops plans to ban Nazi symbols

The European Union dropped plans to ban Nazi insignia and other symbols which could incite hatred yesterday, but agreed to restart talks on harmonising anti-racism laws.

Britain's Prince Harry hit the headlines and caused outrage last month by wearing a swastika armband and a Nazi costume at a fancy dress party, prompting German members of the European Parliament to demand an EU-wide ban on Nazi symbols.

But EU justice and interior ministers meeting in Brussels decided against including such a ban in plans from the European Commission to harmonise national laws to better fight racism and xenophobia, Danish Justice Minister Lene Espersen said.

"It is better to drop any discussion on that. It does not add any value to the proposals," she told reporters. "It would only open a long debate on what symbols it should be."

German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said the decision to drop the idea of a ban was "regrettable" but added the question of insignia was less important than ensuring racism and xenophobia were punished severely across the bloc.

"The central issue for us is to ban expressions (of racism)," she told reporters.

Germany is the only country in Europe that has banned the use of Nazi insignia. But France, for example, bars the sale of Nazi-related memorabilia. Espersen said ministers had agreed to resume talks on the Commission proposals to make public incitement to racist violence or hatred punishable with jail terms of no less than one to three years across the 25-nation bloc.

The plan was first proposed in 2001 but talks broke down in 2003 because of opposition from Italy's centre-right government.

Italian Justice Minister Roberto Castelli from the populist Northern League, known for its anti-immigrant rhetoric, reiterated Rome's concerns that the proposals could infringe on freedom of speech.

He demanded in public that the ban on symbols be included in the negotiations once the talks reopened, despite the ministers' agreement behind close doors to drop the idea.

"I am favourable to reopening the debate," Mr Castelli told Italian reporters. "But there must be no provisions hampering freedom of speech and the question of symbols has to be tackled because it is very important."

Under the stalled 2003 compromise proposals, all EU states would have to make it a crime to incite discrimination, violence or hatred against a person or a group on the basis of race, colour, religion, national or ethnic origin.

The proposals also seek to ban "condoning, denial or gross trivialisation of crimes of genocide" such as the Holocaust, which killed more than six million Jews.