'No EU ban on swastika, Holocaust deniers'

BRUSSELS, Jan 29 (Reuters) Germany will not push during its presidency of the European Union for an EU-wide ban on the swastika and will leave the decision to punish Holocaust deniers in the hands of member states, Berlin said today.

Germany said earlier this month it wanted to harmonise rules throughout the 27-member bloc for dealing with Holocaust deniers and for punishing displays of the symbol of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party, banned in Germany and several other states.

But, setting out plans for an EU-wide anti-racism law today, it said it would not seek to prohibit ''specific symbols such as swastikas''.

It would also not try to push all EU states to say it is a crime to deny that 6 million Jews were exterminated during World War Two, a draft of Germany's draft proposal for an EU anti-racism law said.

Member states could decide not to make the denial of the Holocaust a crime ''where the conduct is of a kind unlikely to incite to violence or hatred directed against a group or a member of a group,'' the draft showed.

The German statement did not say why it had decided against pushing for EU bans on swastikas, but some other EU countries are wary of such legislation and so a community-wide ban may not be achievable.

Denying the Holocaust is a crime punishable in European countries such as Germany, Austria and France with prison terms of as much as 10 years.

But other countries do not consider it as a crime and have resisted moves for an EU-wide legislation.

The Italian cabinet stopped short of making Holocaust denial illegal when it approved a draft law last Thursday imposing jail terms for racist or ethnically motivated crimes.

The EU's executive Commission proposed an EU-wide anti-racism law in 2001 but EU states failed to agree, struggling over the limit between freedom of expression and sanction of racism.

One of the most contentious issues at the time was whether denying that the Holocaust had taken place was a crime.

Germany's new draft suggests that incitement to racism and xenophobia would be punishable by at least 1 to 3 years of jail in all 27 EU states, while leaving to each state to decide on the specifics.

Reuters