EU Fascism

Human rights groups have reacted with horror after EU member states approved draconian new anti-terror laws which critics have warned could be used to suppress eurosceptic movements by force.

The EU Directive on Combatting Terrorism, introduced in March 2017, sparked concern and consternation across the globe due to its incredibly vague definition of what constitutes a terror offence.

Amnesty International, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), European Digital Rights (EDRi), the Fundamental Rights European Experts (FREE) Group, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), and the Open Society Foundations (OSF) all called for the legislation to be comprehensively amended or else scrapped altogether.

Nadim Houry, director of the terrorism and counterterrorism programme at Human Rights Watch, said: “States should effectively address the threat of terrorism. But the EU has rushed to agree on a vaguely worded counterterrorism law that endangers fundamental rights and freedoms.

“Time and again we’ve seen governments adopt abusive counterterrorism laws without assessing their effectiveness, and then implement them in ways that divide and alienate communities. We worry this directive will reinforce this trend and leaves too much leeway for governments to misuse the directive to violate rights.”

Ray Finch, the eurosceptic party’s leader in European Parliament, said the rules to combat hate speech were introduced to suppress the voice of elected officials.  Discussing the measures, Mr Finch told RT: “What they want to do is stop free speech.

“The fact is those terrible views are already there, we need to get them into public and need to say to those people that you are wrong. “You don’t do it by stopping free speech, because once you stop one person, then you move onto the next one – but in the end, nothing will be free.”

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