The European Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, at the official opening in Vienna yesterday of a new EU body established to monitor racism, said Europe could not afford to forget the lessons of history.
"Xenophobia is seeping into the hearts and lives of many," he said. "Europe can only look forward to a peaceful future if it is committed to remembering the past."
As the Union prepares for its biggest expansion yet and with immigration rising, the EU had to send a clear message that racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia would not be tolerated. "When hatred is sown the war has already begun," Mr Prodi said.
The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia began operating in 1998 with a mandate to gather information about incidents of racism and xenophobia in member-states, analyse their causes and effects and promote ways of dealing with them.
According to a survey conducted by the Commission in 1997, some 33 per cent of Europeans consider themselves "very" racist or "quite" racist. A study due to be published shortly is likely to confirm the scale of the problem.
The inauguration of the centre was marred by a dispute about the presence of the Austrian Foreign Minister, Ms Benita Ferrero-Waldner, a member of the conservative People's Party which entered a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party in February, leading to a partial diplomatic boycott of the country.
Ms Ferrero-Waldner attended the opening ceremony as part of President Thomas Klestil's delegation but was left in no doubt that she was an unwelcome guest.
"We did not invite any government and the reason we did not was because it would have included members of the Austrian government and that was not acceptable to us," said Mr Bob Purkiss, the centre's vice-chairman, to applause.
But Mr Klestil said Austria's image abroad was distorted. Foreigners made up 10 per cent of the population and the country had taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees in recent years. Recent political events should not obscure that record.
He also said Austria would work closely with the centre.