On 28 May 2026, ECRI published its Annual Activity Report covering the period from 1 January to 31 December 2025.

This year's report focuses on preventing and combating hate speech across Europe. ECRI underlined that in its country visits it had observed a growing phenomenon of trivialisation of various forms of hate speech, including online, that targets – among other groups – migrants and refugees. It noted that xenophobic discourse had become more prevalent, at times in the context of stricter immigration policies, and that migrants and foreign nationals were amongst the groups most frequently targeted by hate speech in the political sphere, including during electoral campaigns. It observed that in a few countries hate speech targeting migrants had formed part of wider disinformation campaigns. ECRI encouraged self-regulation against hate speech among political parties and commended those political figures who spoke up against hateful rhetorics and promoted counter-speech initiatives. It also stressed the crucial importance of promoting a safe and enabling civic space in which civil society actors taking a stand against racist hate speech can operate and underlined the role of education as a tool to better live together in intercultural societies and to prevent the spread of negative racist stereotypes.

The report also referred to the findings of the ECRI’s annual seminar with the equality bodies during which participants highlighted that the "securitisation" of migration tended to amplify structural discrimination against migrants.

The full report is available on ECRI's website.