European Commission withdraws racist advertisement

When I first saw this I had to check to see it wasn't a very glossy spoof. But it appears it is genuine.

And I am speechless.

As the Information Daily reports:

The European Commission has withdrawn a video clip promoting EU enlargement policy following racist complaints. 

The clip, Growing Together, was uploaded on YouTube last week and shows three men from China, India and Brazil using martial arts skills to fight a woman of European descent. When she multiplies herself to encircle the men, they let go of their weapons and the woman changes into the 12 stars on the European Union flag. 

Stefano Sannino, Director General of Enlargement for the European Commission, which commissioned and published the clip, said in a statement, ”We have received a lot of feedback on our latest video clip, including from people concerned about the message it was sending.”

It is hard not to agree with Sam Bowman on the Adam Smith Institute blog:

Critics of the EU are often accused of being "Little Englanders". In the light of rhetoric like this from the EU it's clear that the mindset behind the EU itself is little more than Little Englanderism writ large across the continent — still preoccupied with keeping out scary foreigners and closing Europe off from alien cultures.

Back to the drawing board, I think.