From The Council of Europe Commissoner for Human Rights

Hate crimes are a daily reality all over the European continent. Credible recent reports show that people suffer violence because they are black, Jewish, Roma or Muslim or because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. They give examples of how individuals have been physically attacked in the street, had their windows broken or homes put on fire. Government authorities have a responsibility to put an end to these shameful and serious crimes.

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) presents facts and analysis about such crimes in its country reports and recommendations on how to counter them.
All these documents demonstrate the danger of allowing prejudices against others to take root and spread.
Unfortunately, the step from hate speech to hate crime is easily made.

Some of these assaults may have been committed by distorted individual minds but many of them bear the imprints of neo-Nazi groups or other organised, extremist gangs who tend to be at the same time racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Roma, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and homophobic.
They may also target foreigners and persons with disabilities.

The seriousness of such crimes and the duty of governments to take action to stop them have also been underlined by the Court of Human Rights.
In one judgment it underlined the importance of effective investigation in cases of racially motivated violence:

"Racial violence is a particular affront to human dignity and, in view of its perilous consequences, requires from the authorities special vigilance and a vigorous reaction. It is for this reason that the authorities must use all available means to combat racism and racist violence, thereby reinforcing democracy's vision of a society in which diversity is not perceived as a threat but as a source of enrichment'
- The European Court of Human Rights, in its Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Nachova and others v Bulgaria (6 July 2005)