BRUSSELS, Jan 17 (AFP) - The European Union pledged Monday to discuss calls for a Europe-wide ban on Nazi insignia, as demanded by German lawmakers after a gaffe by Britain's Prince Harry which sparked widespread outrage.
But the emotionally charged issue triggered immediate dispute, with some warning a ban would threaten freedom of expression and could open the floodgates to implicate all sorts of historical symbols.
"I understand how the burden of history weighs upon my German colleagues' view," said British liberal EU lawmaker Chris Davies.
"However, banning symbols cannot ban evil and risks playing into the hands of those who would seek to subvert the very liberties we most champion," he added.
The comments came after German lawmakers called for a Europe-wide ban on Nazi insignia after the third in line to the British throne flaunted a swastika at a high-society gathering recently.
Harry, the 20-year-old grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, was last week photographed at a fancy-dress party in a version of a World War II German Afrika Korps uniform featuring a swastika armband.
The prince issued a written apology. But the issue has stayed in the headlines with calls for him to make further amends, such as visiting the site of the former Auschwitz death camp in southern Poland.
Germany already has a ban on Nazi insignia. But now its lawmakers have called for the issue to be discussed at a meeting of EU home affairs ministers in Luxembourg on January 28-29.
"All of Europe has suffered in the past because of the crimes of the Nazis, therefore it would be logical for Nazi symbols to be banned all over Europe," said Silvana Koch-Merin, vice president of the liberals in the EU parliament.
A spokesman for EU home affairs commissioner Franco Frattini said he "shares the general feeling of opprobrium at the use of the swastika and other Nazi symbols".
"It may be worth looking into the possibility of a Europe-wide ban," he added.
The EU's Luxembourg presidency said that, although the question is not on the ministerial agenda next week, it does plan to revive discussions on anti-racism measures which could include the banning of Nazi symbols.
Those discussions were shelved two years ago at the request notably of Italy which didn't want them to cloud negotiations over a new EU constitution, which includes a Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The constitution was finalized last year, so negotiations can resume, said an EU presidency source. "In the context of this discussion the question of a ban on the use of Nazi symbols will of course be broached," he said.
The EU commission, conscious that any ban on Nazi insignia could raise questions over other tainted symbols such as Soviet iconography, underlined the importance of freedom of expression.
"We should be very careful in this debate to make a distinction between the fight against discrimination and freedom of expression," said Frattini's spokesman.
"Sometimes it's a very thin line and obviously we have to take that into consideration," he said.
The issue of anti-Semitism in Europe flared early last year after an EU opinion poll indicated that Europeans see Israel as the biggest threat to world peace.
In a high-level conference with Jewish leaders triggered by the poll, the EU promised to clamp down on anti-Semitism and prevent it returning to the continent, over half a century after the Holocaust.
01/17/2005 16:26 GMT - AFP