Europe’s continent-wide survey on discrimination was updated in June 2015 among 28000 EU citizens, as the Special Eurobarometer 437 (click here for the 2012 Special Eurobarometer 393). A better understanding of discrimination is crucial for both the Commission and the Member States to develop effective integration and equality policies.

Nearly two-thirds of people in the EU consider that ethnic discrimination is widespread in the EU, the most widespread ground of discrimination, ahead of discrimination based on sexual orientation (58%), gender (56%) or religion/belief (50%). Many more Europeans are comfortable with the idea of electing a head-of-state of an ethnic minority background. From 2012 to 2015, the numbers increased from 53% to 64%, with the largest increases in Hungary, Austria and Belgium. Only a minority are comfortable with the idea in Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Cyprus or Slovakia. These two indicators (public attitudes towards ethnic discrimination and political leaders with ethnic minority background) were proposed as indicators of a ‘Welcoming Society’ in the European Commission’s 2013 report on ‘Using EU Indicators of Immigrant Integration’. These ‘Welcoming Society’ indicators could complement the EU’s existing immigrant integration ‘Zaragoza’ indicators.

Similarly, nearly half of respondents in Czech Republic and Slovakia would not be comfortable with the idea of working with a black or Asian person, while 83% of respondents across Europe were comfortable or indifferent. Moving from work to family life, only around two-thirds of respondents in Europe do not care or feel uncomfortable about the idea of their son or daughter having a relationship with a Black or Asian person. Similar patterns and country breakdowns emerged for questions about Muslim people, although respondents were less likely to feel comfortable about having a Muslim colleague (71%) or partner for their children (50%).
Nearly 1/3 of self-identified ethnic minorities said that they personally experienced discrimination or harassment in the previous 12 months. This is a high-rate of perceived discrimination, similar to self-identified disabled persons (37%) and sexual minorities (32%) and higher than the EU average of 21%. Based on the survey’s results, 5% of people in Europe consider themselves as part of a religious minority and 4% as part of an ethnic minority.

45% of all respondents said they know their rights as discrimination victims, a slight increase since 2012 of +8%. A majority know their rights in only 12 countries, up from 7 countries in 2012. Awareness levels are generally no higher among members of groups at risk of discrimination or people recently experiencing discrimination.

Views are mixed about the effectiveness of current national measures to fight discrimination but most think new measures are necessary. In general, people who think discrimination is widespread in their country tend to be more critical of national efforts to fight discrimination. A vast majority of people support measures to foster diversity at the workplace and teach about religious and ethnic diversity at school. Providing personal anonymised information in order to fight discrimination is supported by most people and even more so by groups at risk of discrimination and people recently experiencing discrimination.

These results were presented at the European Commission’s Fundamental Rights Colloquium in Brussels on 1-2 October. On that occasion Vra Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, used the results to call for greater action against hate speech and hate crimes: "Every victim of hate crime or discrimination is one victim too many. One in five people in the EU from a religious minority say they have experienced discrimination or harassment on the grounds of religion or beliefs in the past 12 months. This is unacceptable. I call upon Member States to properly apply European legislation and take action against racist and xenophobic hate speech and hate crime."
The new Eurobarometer data can be downloaded as a report, summary, and factsheets in English and other EU national languages.