Focus ROMI.HR

Hate speech remains one of the most pervasive threats to equality and human dignity across Europe. Ethnic minorities — and in particular the Roma community — continue to face harmful stereotypes, online abuse, and even hate-motivated violence. In response, the European Union has developed a series of legal, institutional, and policy tools to combat this form of discrimination and promote inclusion.

Illegal under EU law

Hate motivated crime and speech are illegal under EU law. One of the EU’s core legal instruments in this area is the 2008 Council Framework Decision on combating racism and xenophobia (2008/913/JHA). It obliges all Member States to criminalise public incitement to violence or hatred based on race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin — both online and offline. While implementation still varies between countries, it provides a legal basis to address hate speech at the European level. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, which has had binding legal force since 2009, also prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnic origin (Article 21), reinforcing the commitment to equality and non-discrimination.

In 2020, the EU Anti-Racism Action Plan 2020–2025 was adopted by the European Commission, which explicitly recognises structural racism, including anti-Gypsyism (anti-Roma discrimination). The plan urges Member States to strengthen enforcement of anti-hate laws, cooperate with civil society, and ensure victims of hate receive proper support.

In December 2021, the list of «EU crimes» went beyond by including hate speech and hate crime" under Article 83(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). This would allow the EU to propose harmonised rules across Member States, extending criminalisation beyond racism and xenophobia to other forms of hatred.

In parallel, the EU Roma Strategic Framework for Equality, Inclusion and Participation (2020–2030) sets out ambitious goals to improve Roma inclusion. One of its cross- cutting priorities is to combat hate speech and disinformation, urging Member States to report on anti-Roma hate incidents and to actively engage Roma voices in the development of national policies.

Initiatives to prevent online hate speech

To specifically address online hate speech, the European Union has implemented several key initiatives—both voluntary and legally binding—that increase the responsibility of digital platforms and establish effective mechanisms to tackle this issue:

Since 2016, the EU Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online—a voluntary agreement between the European Commission and major tech platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok—has committed companies to review and remove illegal hate content within 24 hours. This code is regularly monitored by civil society organizations across Member States. In January 2025, this initiative was upgraded to Code of Conduct+, integrated into the Digital Services Act (DSA), with stricter transparency requirements, defined performance targets (such as reviewing at least two-thirds of flagged hate speech reports within 24 hours), and cooperation with third-party monitoring organizations.

Enacted in 2022 and fully applicable since 2023–2024, the Digital Services Act provides a binding legal framework regulating very large online platforms: it obliges them to assess and mitigate systemic risks—including hate speech—and to act promptly when illegal content is flagged. Besides requiring transparency on content moderation and algorithms, non-compliance can lead to heavy fines (up to 6% of global turnover).

Other EU Institutions

Other institutions within the European Union, like the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) recognizes that online hate speech is a «growing problem in today’s digitalised societies». In 2023, they did a report on: Online content moderation - Current challenges in detecting hate speech, addressing that women, Black people, Jews and Roma are often targets of online hate speech. The study reports that online hate proliferates where human content moderators miss offensive content, and that algorithms are prone to errors — they may multiply errors over time and may even end up promoting online hate—.

Europol, through its European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), Europol coordinates efforts against cybercrime, including hate crimes and online hate speech. It publishes reports and facilitates cooperation among police and judicial authorities across Member States to investigate and prosecute these offenses.

The European Parliament has adopted several resolutions and studies calling for stronger measures against online hate speech, including tougher regulations for digital platforms. It played a key role in pushing for legislation such as the Digital Services Act.

The Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers (DG JUST) is the responsible body for monitoring how EU member states apply anti-discrimination laws and hate speech regulations, including through funding projects, studies, and campaigns. DG Justice and Consumers works closely in coordination with the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) to collect data, monitor hate speech trends, and support evidence-based policies.

Furthermore, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has addressed in several rulings cases involving hate speech or hate acts against minorities, including Romani communities. One example would be the case of Sampanis and Others v. Greece (Application No. 32526/05). The applicants, 11 Greek nationals of Roma origin, were subjected to discriminatory treatment when their children were initially denied enrollment in the local primary school and later placed in a segregated annex school, which was located five kilometers away and consisted of prefabricated classrooms. The Court emphasized that such segregation amounted to discrimination and that the authorities had failed to take appropriate measures to prevent it. So far, there are no rulings by the European Court of Human Rights that specifically focus on online hate speech against the Romani community.

However, the European Court of Human Rights does address hate speech more broadly in its official factsheet on the subject. The document explains the Court’s approach to hate speech, emphasizing the balance between protecting freedom of expression and preventing speech that incites hatred or violence. It clarifies that not all offensive or provocative speech is punishable, but hate speech that threatens the rights and safety of others can be restricted under the European Convention on Human Rights. This factsheet can be consulted here: ECHR Factsheet on Hate Speech.