Brussels, 01/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday European countries were unable to reach an agreement, at the end of the External Affairs Council, on a declaration on religious freedom. This initiative followed terrorist attacks recently committed against Christians in Arab countries. Italy and France consider that the text is too vague, whereas the United Kingdom and some Nordic countries (particularly Sweden) do not want a specific reference to a religious community. The high representative, Catherine Ashton, declared that the 27 European ministers had agreed to return to the subject and think about how the European Union could support religious freedom and tolerance. The Italian minister for foreign affairs, Franco Frattini, regretted that they had failed to produce an appropriate document.
Following attacks against the Syriac Catholic church in Baghdad and Coptic Christians in Egypt, Hungary, Italy and Poland had demanded a debate at the Council of the EU on the situation regarding Christians in the region. Ambassadors from the 27 member states agreed to have a meeting upstream of the Council on a text urging Catherine Ashton to develop concrete proposals for strengthening European Union action in favour of religious freedom. The text “firmly” condemned the recent violence and acts of terrorism against places of worship and pilgrimage. It did not, however, mention any specific community. Although the delegations had agreed on the adoption of the text, Italy put the subject back on the table and expressed its disagreement with a text that was too cool and which required a reference to the “Christian community” and the attack against the Shi'ite community of Kerbala. Frattini said that Europe would not be credible without making these specific references. At the end of the discussions, he explained that “the final text does not include any mention of Christians, as if we had been talking about something else. This is why I asked for the text to be withdrawn and ultimately it was withdrawn”. The British were particularly against any such mention and considered that it was necessary to make a more general observation of the facts and exclude any formulation that was too precise and which could be manipulated by terrorist groups to stoke up the idea of the “clash of civilisations”. The EU27 finally decided to send a text to their ambassadors, so that they could refine it before discussing the matter at the next Council session. Heads of state and government will perhaps discuss the subject next Friday, during the Council summit, but this is unlikely to be carried out in a formal way, explained a Council spokesperson. (I.L./transl.fl)