Prince Harry's ill-judged decision to wear a swastika armband to a fancy dress party could lead to a Europe-wide ban on the wearing of Nazi insignia.

Outraged German politicians called for the ban last week after a photograph of the Prince wearing a red swastika was published in The Sun and reprinted in newspapers around the world. A similar ban already exists in Germany itself.

A spokesman for Franco Frattini, the European Commissioner in charge of justice and home affairs, said today that the Italian commissioner "shares the general feeling of opprobrium on the use of the swastika and other Nazi symbols".

The spokesman added: "It may be worth looking into the possibility of a total ban, a Europe-wide ban."

Prince Harry issued a brief written apology last week for any offence caused by his decision to wear a swastika to the party nine days ago. But his father, the Prince of Wales, resisted calls, including from Michael Howard, the Conservative leader who lost relatives during the Holocaust, that he publicly apologise in person.

Clarence House also rejected a call from the Simon Wiesentahl Centre, the Jewish human rights organisation, that he atone for the gaffe by joining the ceremony later this month to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Backers of a Europe-wide ban want the issue rushed onto the agenda of a European Union ministers’ meeting next week which Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, is due to attend. But the issue would be both emotive, and politically sensitive.

"I understand how the burden of history weighs upon my German colleagues’ view," said Chris Davies, leader of the British Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament.

"However, banning symbols cannot ban evil and risks playing into the hands of those who would seek to subvert the very liberties we most champion."

Harry, 20, was captured in a mobile phone photograph wearing the uniform of Rommel's Afrika Korps plus the swastika armband. He hired the costume at a fancy dress shop near his father's estate at Highgrove in Gloucestershire.

"All of Europe has suffered in the past because of the crimes of the Nazis, therefore it would be logical for Nazi symbols to be banned all over Europe," said Silvana Koch-Merin, vice president of the liberals in the EU parliament.

But Signor Frattini's spokesman, Friso Roscam Abbing, said: "We should be very careful in this debate to make a distinction between the fight against ... discrimination and freedom of expression. Sometimes it’s a very thin line and obviously we have to take that into consideration."

The Times reported today that the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee would probe how the aides who advise Prince Harry and his brother, Prince William, are recruited.

"Where do they get these people who are advising Harry? They are either negligent, incompetent, politically suspect, or a combination of all three," said Ian Davidson, the Labour MP for Glasgow Pollok who is a member of the committee.

He added: "Harry clearly requires better-quality advisers who would have told him he was not leaving the house dressed as a Nazi. You don't have to be bright to work out it's a stupid and offensive thing to do."

The all-party committee will call on Sir Michael Peat, who runs the private office of the Prince of Wales, to give evidence before the committee's televised hearing on February 7.

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