The new EU Anti-Racism Strategy: A missed opportunity to confront the structural violence experienced by racialised communities
Brussels, Belgium – 21 January 2026
While the European Union’s new Anti-Racism Strategy keeps important terminology, the commitment to Local and National Actions Plans against Racism, collaboration with civil society organisations, including international organisations, it fails to address the scale, urgency, and structural nature of racism in Europe.
As argued in our recent op-ed in EUobserver, the strategy is disconnected from the violent realities of discriminatory policing, securitisation, and a shrinking civic space, ultimately recycling old approaches. As the largest anti-racism network in Europe, representing over 140 member organisations, we will work with institutions and CSO partners to ensure it achieves more and meet the urgency of the moment in Europe.
A flawed definition of structural racism
While the Commission’s proposal to facilitate the development by Member States of a working definition of structural racism is a commendable initiative, the strategy’s own definition of racism lacks tangible intersectional and systemic understanding. By defining structural racism as “racism experienced over a lifetime [that] accumulates,” it mischaracterises structural racism as a mere accumulation of individual acts, rather than a system embedded in our institutions, laws, and policies.
This is directly reflected in the problematic economic framing of the strategy and overlooking racism as a major obstacle to rule of law and democracy, leading to increased legitimised curtailment of basic rights for racialised people.
Historical wrongs and intersectional realities
The strategy acknowledges Europe’s colonial past and its impact. However, it offers no meaningful commitment to reparatory justice or redress for the ongoing material consequences of this history.
Moreover, it does not clearly address the intersectional nature of racism, where discrimination is compounded by gender, migration status, class, disability, religion and sexuality. For example, racialised migrant women have reduced access to healthcare and police protection due to increasing discriminatory policies.
Toyin Agbetu, 2nd Vice-Chair of ENAR, states:
“The upcoming EU Anti-Racism Strategy must do more than just address discrimination; it must actively dismantle the roots of systemic oppression that persist in European policies. A truly decolonial and intersectional approach is not optional or necessarily radical. But it is the only honest way to ensure that the convergence of ethnicity, class, and gender is sufficiently addressed and delivers the reparatory justice marginalised communities deserve.”
State-sanctioned violence and impunity
The strategy is silent on the EU’s role in militarising borders and implementing migration policies built on deterrence and exclusion, which disproportionately harm racialised people.
It fails to acknowledge that policing, migration governance, and security frameworks are not neutral tools but are, in fact, central sites of structural racism, reproducing racial hierarchies under the guise of public order.
Sandra Alloush, 1st Vice-Chair of ENAR, adds:
“As someone who has personally experienced brutal racial profiling within Europe’s borders, I know that we cannot fight racism with half-measures. This new strategy must include binding legal protections against police violence and the criminalisation of migrants. We need a commitment to accountability that ensures no one is stripped of their dignity by the very institutions meant to uphold the law.”
The witch-hunt against anti-racist CSOs
Any credible anti-racism strategy must protect and support the civil society organisations on the frontlines of the fight for racial justice. Yet this strategy does not address the violent shrinking of civic space for racialised and migrant-led organisations across Europe. These groups are increasingly subjected to disproportionate scrutiny, administrative harassment, funding restrictions, and criminalisation.
ENAR and its members will continue to work with the Coordinators on combatting racism through the Anti-Racism Civil Society forum, the new Civil Society Platform and national workshops to ensure this is better addressed.
A call for concrete actions
We call on the European Commission and Member States to go beyond anda focus its work with civil society on the following:
- Adopt a robust and accurate definition of structural racism that acknowledges its systemic and institutional nature.
- Confront the EU’s role in perpetuating racial injustice through its migration, security, and policing policies, with a commitment to reparatory justice.
- Provide concrete, binding measures to dismantle racist structures through National and Local actions plans against racism.
- Protect and sustain racialised and migrant-led civil society organisations through sustainable funding and an end to their criminalisation.
Another decade of performative anti-racism is not an option. The EU must move beyond empty rhetoric and take decisive action to build a future rooted in racial justice and equality for all.
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About ENAR
The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) is the largest pan-European network that advocates for racial equality and justice in Europe. ENAR works to put an end to structural racism and discrimination and to make a real difference in the lives of ethnic and religious minorities across Europe.
For more information or to arrange an interview, contact:
Amira Salama / +32 489 02 78 63
ENAR Communications Officer
