The European Union has abandoned plans to ban swastikas and other Nazi symbols but said work would continue on a wider law to fight racism and xenophobia. EU justice ministers dropped the planned ban on swastikas after Britain, Hungary and Denmark objected, saying a discussion on symbols would detract from the wider and more important fight against racism. Calls for such a move emerged last month after Britain's Prince Harry caused outrage by wearing a swastika armband and a Nazi costume to a fancy dress party. The debate grew more heated after others in the EU called for communist symbols, including the red star and the hammer and the sickle, to be subject to a similar ban. | "You'll pry my hammer and sickle out of my cold dead fingers!" |
Germany is so far the only EU country to ban the use of Nazi insignia. |