Anti-Racism NGO With Muslim Brotherhood Ties Participates In Public Hearing For Implementation Of EU Anti-Racism Agenda

On 30 Novem­ber 2021, the Euro­pean Net­work Against Racism (ENAR) par­tic­i­pat­ed in a vir­tu­al hear­ing by the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment Com­mit­tee on Civ­il Lib­er­ties, Jus­tice, and Home Affairs that dis­cussed the imple­men­ta­tion of the EU Anti-Racism Action Plan 2020–2025. Accord­ing to a post on the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment website:

Racism and xeno­pho­bia con­tin­ue to be rel­e­vant top­ics on EU’s agen­da. As a result of the EP res­o­lu­tion fol­low­ing the killing of George Floyd, the Com­mis­sion devel­oped the EU Anti-Racism Action Plan 2020–2025, adopt­ed in Sep­tem­ber 2020. The objec­tive of the hear­ing is to assess the EU anti-racism agen­da and iden­ti­fy fur­ther steps to ensure its full devel­op­ment and implementation.

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The EU Anti-Racism Action Plan 2020–2025 is described as “a series of mea­sures to step up action and to bring togeth­er actors at all lev­els to address racism more effec­tive­ly in the EU.” Its objec­tives include increas­ing racial diver­si­ty of Com­mis­sion staff and the imple­men­ta­tion of a des­ig­nat­ed Euro­pean Coor­di­na­tor for Anti-Racism.

Accord­ing to the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment web­site, the 30 Novem­ber 2021 hear­ing was part of a series of dis­cus­sions on spe­cif­ic top­ics relat­ed to anti-racism, such as police vio­lence against Roma. Oth­er event par­tic­i­pants includ­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, the EU Agency for Fun­da­men­tal Rights, the Coun­cil of Europe, and the Bel­gian Coali­tion for the Nation­al Action Plan Against Racism.

ENAR has long lob­bied for tougher mea­sures against racism at the Euro­pean lev­el,  demand­ing that EU anti-ter­ror­ism leg­is­la­tion con­sid­er the impact on groups that it believes are at height­ened risk of dis­crim­i­na­tion. In March 2021, ENAR rep­re­sen­ta­tives par­tic­i­pat­ed in a Euro­pean Com­mis­sion vir­tu­al sum­mit that dis­cussed the EU Anti-Racism Action Plan and fea­tured appear­ances by top-lev­el EU offi­cials, includ­ing the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion Pres­i­dent and the Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Parliament.

ENAR is an asso­ci­a­tion of over 150 NGOs describ­ing itself as “the voice of the anti-racist move­ment in Europe” with head­quar­ters in Brus­sels, Bel­gium. For­mer ENAR Direc­tor Michaël Priv­ot, who in 2008 open­ly acknowl­edged that he was a mem­ber of the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood,  has served in lead­ing posi­tions in sev­er­al orga­ni­za­tions tied to the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB). One of ENAR’s for­mer mem­bers was the Col­lec­tif Con­tre l’Islamophobie en France, an Islamist influ­ence oper­a­tion with ties to orga­ni­za­tions part of the GMB in Europe, and that was dis­solved by the French author­i­ties in 2020. In 2019, ENAR was one of 21 sig­na­to­ries to an open let­ter pub­lished by a self-described “infor­mal Euro­pean coali­tion against Islam­o­pho­bia,” which, accord­ing to the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood Dai­ly Watch, was com­prised main­ly of orga­ni­za­tions and one indi­vid­ual tied to the GMB in Europe.