Brussels, 02/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, COMECE (Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community) regrets that the 27 EU foreign affairs ministers did not reach an agreement on a common declaration condemning religious persecution, due to a disagreement between ministers on whether to include a specific reference to Christians (EUROPE 10306). The European Parliament and the Council of Europe had, nonetheless, paved the way and condemned persecution of Christians, by adopting explicit resolutions, underlines COMECE, which regrets “diplomatic wavering” at the Council. It is also astonished by the controversy and considers that European public opinion had broadly been made aware of the specific situation involving Christians in the Middle East, following the recent attacks against churches in Iraq and Egypt. Drawing on statistics on religious freedom, COMECE emphasises that a majority of religious acts of violence are perpetrated against Christians, a situation that has become particularly alarming in the Middle East. COMECE concludes that “the commitment of the EU to stand for fundamental rights and religious freedom is clearly stated in the EU Treaty and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and has been reaffirmed in many declarations. Therefore we now expect that the EU will take concrete measures to turn these general principles into significant political action”.
Last week, the Council of Europe adopted a recommendation in which it resolutely condemns the attacks in Baghdad and Alexandria as “particularly tragic”, given that at the same time attacks against Christian communities in the world are multiplying. It warns against the possible disappearance of Christian communities in the Near and Middle East. Finally, in a press release, MEPs Elmar Brok (EPP, Germany) and Mario Mauro (EPP, Italy) developed a European Parliament resolution in which they declared that they were surprised not to have seen the draft Council declaration making any mention of the word “Christians” and pointed out that the document had failed to include any of the proposals put forward by the European Parliament. They are demanding “concrete proposals to tackle the problems confronting Christian communities in certain parts of the world”. (I.L./transl.fl)