Europe has come a long way at least in the institutional response to racism. This book describes the responses of the Council of Europe and the European Union to the worrying trends of racism and xenophobia in the 1990s, and considers the prospects for combating discrimination in Europe using tools that have emerged as a result.

Jan Niessen is director of the Brussels based Migration Policy Group, an independent policy institute on migration and diversity. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the European Journal of Migration and Law and of the Board of Directors of the Journal of International Migration and Integration. For the Council of Europe he wrote the report Diversity and Cohesion new challenges for the integration of immigrants and minorities.
Isabelle Chopin is deputy-director of the Migration Policy Group. For many years, she acted as the Director of the Starting Line Group coalition, leading to the adoption of the Racial Equality Directive of 29 June 2000. She also works with the EU and accession states, focusing on the transposition and implementation of the Racial Equality Directive and the Employment Equality Directive.