EU agrees new race-hatred law but doesn't ban Holocaust denial, Nazi symbols outright

Incitement to racial hatred and xenophobia is to become a crime across the EU, although the long-fought agreement avoids singling out Holocaust denial and was watered down after differences between member states.

Six years of often fractious negotiations ended in Luxembourg yesterday with a compromise that struggled to balance freedom of expression with a tough stance on anti-semitism and other forms of racism and prejudice.

Justice ministers from all 27 EU countries agreed to punish incitement to hatred or violence against a group or a person that is based on colour, race, national or ethnic origin, by a sentence of between one and three years' jail.

[The Times (of London) led its story on the legislation with"Condoning or 'grossly trivialising' genocide will become a crime punishable by up to three years in prison across Europe..."]