VIENNA, Jan 27, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - The fight against antisemitism in the European Union is being set back by major gaps in the recording of incidents, the bloc's rights watchdog said in a report Tuesday.

Member states classify and count reported acts differently, which skews the statistics and "prevents any meaningful comparisons", the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)said.

"The lack of reliable and comparable data continues to undermine efforts to counter antisemitism," it added.

The report called for guidelines and training to enable police to identify antisemitic motives, as well as increased cooperation with civil society to reduce underreporting.

"Jews across Europe continue to face persistent antisemitism. Countering this requires concerted efforts underpinned by robust data that captures the full scale of antisemitism in Europe," FRA director Sirpa Rautio said in a statement.

"Only then we can hold offenders to account, get justice for victims and foster a Europe where Jews can live their lives freely and openly," Rautio added.

In its last report on the topic, published in 2024, FRA said Europe's Jewish community was facing a "rising tide of antisemitism", with the conflict in the Middle East "eroding" progress made in the fight against it.

An online survey found that 96 percent of European Jews said they had encountered antisemitism in 2022.

The survey was conducted between January and June 2023 -- before Hamas's October 7 attack, which sparked the war in Gaza.

Tuesday's FRA report covers the 27 member states, as well as EU hopefuls Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia.

In 2022, 15 EU members, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain, signed a declaration aimed at developing a common methodology for quantifying and qualifying antisemitic incidents.