EP124

32 | Escritura PÚBLICA | julio-agosto 2020 | ÁMBITO EUROPEO in English –Since you mentioned the role your colleagues should play, commissioner Didier Reynders gave a half-hearted apology for his appearance with his face painted in black during a traditional parade in Brussels. Do you think he should have been more convincing? –Commissioner Reynders was one who really contributed to the debate in the college on Wednesday. He also presented the victims rights strategy, a very good plan that affects people being racially discriminated. I like to judge people according to their work. I think commissioner Reynders has done a very good job on this victims rights strategy. –Are you satisfied with his apology then? –I didn't say I am satisfied. I am just saying I am satisfied with the work he is doing in this area. He’s working very hard. And obviously we work very closely because our portfolios. –What do you think about the debate on withdrawing some statues of controversial historical figures? –Knowing our history will help us not to repeat certain mistakes committed in the past. I am not very fond of statues as a rule. I appreciate them when they are good pieces of art. But I have always held that the monuments that we leave behind us, the legacy, is our work . –For example, do you feel comfortable with having the statue of King Leopold II at the entrance of the European neighbourhood in Brussels, knowing that up to 10 million people died in Congo while he was its ruler? –When I see it, I remember all these things, and it’s not a good thing to remember. That's why it's important to know our history. And we learn from it. And we can be critical of how it is represented today. But it's good that there's discussion about this, because it means that we are, rightfully so, being critical and being vocal also about our criticism. It is healthy to have such a debate. “Racism is alive in Europe, not just in the US. It's ironic that we're celebrating the 20 years of the racial equality directive, and we still have structural problems” –¿Cree tal vez que hubo algún tipo de racismo estruc- tural también dentro de la Comisión Europea dada la falta de diversidad en el personal? –Existe un sesgo de que a veces ni siquiera somos cons- cientes. Y sí, racismo estructural. Pero creo que está en todas partes. Por eso debemos abordar las raíces del problema, no solo los síntomas, no solo los resultados. Tenemos que salirnos del guion y encontrar maneras de ver cómo podemos aportar más diversidad en todo el proceso. Por ejemplo, con las universidades, y pode- mos ofrecer prácticas y aseguramos de que nuestros procesos de selección son más diversos. –Mencionaba que existe una brecha entre la legislación y el impacto en las personas. ¿Cómo se podría fortalecer el papel de las autoridades al aplicar la legislación? –Lo trataremos en el plan de acción. Abri- remos un proceso de consulta previo. Ya mantuvimos una muy buena discusión en el colegio de comisarios a finales de junio. Mi equipo es el responsable de liderar y coordinar el trabajo sobre este plan de acción. Pero para mí, lo esencial es cambiar las actitudes y la cultura. Y tenemos que ser todos quienes tengamos esta perspec- tiva de igualdad. Si se tratara solo de mi cartera de Igual- dad la que hiciera el trabajo, sería un esfuerzo superfi- cial. Tenemos que abordarlo desde todas las facetas de la «Es irónico que celebremos los 20 años de la Directiva sobre igualdad racial, y todavía tengamos problemas estructurales»