Urusula Von der Leyen has stated that a debate within the Commission would be held next week in racism.
The president of the european Commission, the German Ursula von der Leyen, has acknowledged the lack of diversity within the european institutions and called on the EU to “do more” to combat racism. At the head of a team of 27 members (12 women and 15 men), all white, Ursula von der Leyen was speaking before the european Parliament in Brussels, on the occasion of a debate on the manifestations of racism which have followed the death in the United States on may 25, George Floyd, a black man asphyxiated by a white policeman.
“Look around us, here, in this chamber. The diversity of our society is not represented, has launched Ursula von der Leyen. “And I’m the first to admit that the situation is no better within the college of commissioners, or among the staff of the european Commission”.
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“I don’t know what it is like to be black or a member of other minority ethnic, religious or sexual. I’ve never had the experience of being treated differently because only one of my birth”, she said. “I don’t know what it is like to be treated with suspicion, day after day, in the street, doing my shopping, looking for a job, or a new housing”.
“We must do more,”
“most of us in this room don’t know”, she continued. “But we know one thing : a Lot of people – women and men – know. And they tell us, at full throat, that we tolerate racism for far too long”.
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“In our Union, there is no place for racism or any other form of discrimination,” she assured, referring to the EU legislation in the matter. But “we must do more,” she urged, indicating that a debate within the Commission would be held next week in racism.
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At this plenary session of the european Parliament, which was opened by a minute of silence in memory of George Floyd, a mep German of african origin said to have been a victim of police violence in Brussels. Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, elected Greens, said to have been treated brutally by police while she photographed an intervention that she considered abusive, a version disputed by the belgian police.
