Letter: Europe must act against racism

Sir: Ann Dummett (letter, 1 January) has done us all a service by highlighting the European Year Against Racism, which much of the British public may not have heard about, given the half-hearted response from our own government.

This year could be a great opportunity for the United Kingdom to play a vital role in proposing amendments which would outlaw race and religious discrimination across the European Union.

Our organisation and a broad range of ethnic minority and anti-racist organisations feel that we should move away from inter-governmental action on immigration, asylum and race equality policy towards a common European legislation which would set high standards of protection against racial discrimination.

While it is the policy of the two main parties that Britain should maintain control over its own immigration and asylum policy, this situation does not preclude a UK government fighting for minimum race equality protection and legislation at the European Union level.

CLAUDE MORAES

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

London EC1