Void at the Centre: (The Lack of) European Union Guidance on Ethnic Data
Void at the Centre: (The Lack of) European Union Guidance on Ethnic Data

Summary/Abstract: This paper notes, on the basis of a very brief overview of data guidance at the level of the European Union (EU), that increasing EU efforts to combat racism and racial discrimination notwithstanding, the EU has not yet ventured meaningfully into providing guidance on the production of ethnic data. This is odd, in light of (i) increasing data preoccupations at the EU level in social matters generally and (ii) a history of recognition at the EU level that data is a key instrument in securing (gender) equality. This paper further notes that the silence in the area of EU guidance on ethnic data is growing more evident, due to the growth of EU guidance on data (and other matters) in social areas generally. Indeed, the lack of guidance on ethnic data matters may be having the apparently unintended but nevertheless perverse effect of communicating to Member States the message that the EU may not be very serious in its commitments to racial equality, despite repeated action aimed at tackling racism. The failure to devote sufficient attention to ethnic data may undermine EU commitments to implementing the principle of racial equality.

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