Leadership Talk by the Executive Vice-President and CEO of the European Jewish Congress

Abstract

The European Jewish Congress (EJC), the umbrella organization of European Jewry, represents Jewish communities in 42 countries across Europe. Our communities face very diverse challenges, from security issues and attacks on fundamental freedom, to antisemitism,which comes from the far right, the far left, and from radical Islam. As such, they need a strong voice, a voice that is heard and respected, and most importantly, an effective voice. From our headquarters in Brussels, we advocate for policies and mechanisms that will hopefully have tangible effects for our communities, and we are vigilant against attacks on human dignity and democratic values. At the core of these challenges lies the scourge of antisemitism. In all dimensions of our work,we focus on practical efforts towards combatting this evil. This is why I would like to share some of our strategies with you: Our main tool in order to achieve tangible results on the ground is advocacy. A central element of our strategy is to advocate for the development and implementation of legislation.We also identified the need for a dedicated forum to raise awareness and develop tools to fight antisemitism at the European Parliament.We succeeded in establishing the European Parliament Working Group on Antisemitism, which brings together around one hundred principled and motivated MEPs across all major political groups.1 The EJC advises the Working Group and acts currently as its Secretariat. The Working Group’s groundbreaking success of 2017 was the adoption by the European Parliament of the first Resolution solely dedicated to the fight against antisemitism at EU level. The Chair of the Working Group at the time, the former Justice Minister of Spain was the legislative initiator of the Resolution. In the plenary, we found broad political support across all political the spectrum, with 76 percent of MEPs voting in favor. Through this Resolution,