The 3rd meeting of the working group of the European Commission on antisemitism, that took place on the 17th of June, was divided in two panels focusing respectively on the prevalence of disinformation and antisemitic conspiracy myths in the context of the COVID19 and the implementation of the International Holocaust Alliance’s definition of antisemitism.

Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President for Promoting our European way of life, opened the third meeting of the working group on antisemitism, emphasising in his speech that the Covid19 crisis had brought out the best and the worst in our society. This was followed by a speech from Věra Jourová, Vice-President for Values and Transparency, who stressed that this meeting was coming at a time of heightened awareness of racism and discrimination worldwide in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in the US.

Several Member States reported about progress on national strategies on combating antisemitism. DG HOME, European Commission, announced a call for proposals on protecting places of worship worth EUR 12 million euros, open between 25 June and 24 September 2020.

For German EU Presidency, Felix Klein, the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish life and the fight against antisemitism, informed that the fight against antisemitism is one priority of the German EU presidency. Intentions are to progress in the implementation of the 2018 Council Declaration on antisemitism, in particular regarding national strategies.

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