MOSCOW, September 18./TASS/. Moscow expects that the European Union countries will realize the importance of international efforts to fight anti-Semitism, the Foreign Ministry said in a commentary on Friday.

The ministry drew attention to a recent report by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights about manifestations of anti-Semitism in EU countries. "The report demonstrates a negative situation with regard to countering manifestations of anti-Semitism in the EU," the ministry said. "Significant gaps were noted in the collection of data by EU member countries on incidents of anti-Semitism: only some of them keep records on incidents of xenophobic manifestations against members of the Jewish community," it added.

It noted that EU countries traditionally abstain in the voting in the UN on a resolution on fight against glorification of Nazism, yearly submitted by Russia and other co-authors. "We hope that leadership of the EU member nations will realize the importance of international efforts to fight manifestations of anti-Semitism and other kinds of xenophobia and will take more active part in the future in putting them into practice," the Foreign Ministry stressed.

"The situation with the spread of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and connected with them intolerance is one of the key issues on the human rights agenda of the European Union," it summed up.