EU foreign policy needs to include religious freedom as a central
plank, according to a leading Member of the European Parliament.
Speaking at a conference organised by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung,
the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union
(COMECE) and the Evangelical Church in Germany, Othmar Karas MEP said EU
foreign policy must take account of religious freedom issues.
Mr Karas, the Vice-Chairman of the European People's Party (EPP)
Group responsible for Inter-religious activities, said,
"Non-discrimination is universal. Freedom of religion and
non-discrimination go hand in hand.”
“Religions are an important part of the European identity and
therefore inter-religious dialogue is crucial for political and European
consciousness. Religious freedom must be incorporated in the EU's
foreign policy. It must be part of our external policy and internal
policy. For instance, we must focus on this issue not only in the
Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, but there are also
links to the Employment Committee. The policy area of religious
freedom must be integrated in all our actions."
His remarks came a week after a Written Declaration was issued by
Mario Mauro of the European People's Party (EPP) and Konrad Szymanski
MEP of the European Conservative and Reformist Group (ECR) calling on
the Commission to add a binding clause on respect for religious freedom
to agreements with non-EU States.
Meanwhile, Bishop László Tkés MEP said, "Our decent life in peace,
security and freedom can only be realised through acknowledging and
respecting the human dignity and rights of others, their freedom of
conscience and religion. All over the world, Christians are victim of
oppression and persecution, but also other religious minorities, Hindus,
Buddhists etc, suffer similar atrocities in other parts of the world."
Violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief take place
all over the world and it affects an estimated 100 million Christians
every year.
According to Open Doors International, in 2010, the top ten list of
countries where Christians are most persecuted because of their faith,
consists of North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Maldives, Afghanistan,
Yemen, Mauritania, Laos, and Uzbekistan.
Launching the Written Declaration last week, Mr Szymaski MEP (ECR)
recalled "75 per cent of deaths linked to religion-based hate crimes
affect people of the Christian faith, which makes Christians the most
persecuted religious group in the world. Europe cannot remain
indifferent. The EU must take co-responsibility for protecting
religious freedom all over the world. Today, the mass suffering of
Christians is still a crime that remains forgotten. We are here to
remind the politicians of their responsibilities in this matter.”
Mario Mauro MEP (EPP Group) stressed, " Religious freedom is the
condition through which all our other freedoms pass: freedom to express
and profess the religion in which we believe means to escape the abuse
of power. This is the reason why we need to insist on the defence of
this principle and this is also why we initiated the Written Declaration
in the defence of 'freedom of religion'."
The Memorandum recalls "the right to religious freedom is so closely
linked to the other fundamental rights that respect for religious
freedom is like a ‘test' for the observance of fundamental rights.”
It is expected that the declaration will be submitted to the European
Parliament in the next few weeks.
It will require signatures of 380
MEPs within three months to be adopted.
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