Brussels, 17/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On 6 October in Nicosia, a delegation of the Commission of the Bishops' Confesences of the European Community (COMECE) representatives was received by the Cypriot Deputy Minister for European Affairs Andreas D. Mavroyiannis as part of the series of regular encounters between churches and EU presidencies.
COMECE representatives addressed several human rights issues, in particular on the implementation of freedom of religion or belief in the whole of Cyprus. The church representatives stressed the need for the protection and full accessibility of worship places and holy sites in the Turkish occupied part of the country. Concerning the European External Action Service (EEAS) “Guidelines” on the freedom of religion or belief, the churches underlined the importance for the EU to also collect reliable data on the implementation of freedom of religion or belief outside the EU and to ask the EU to establish appropriate mechanisms and capacities in the EU to quickly react to the violation of freedom of religion in other parts of the world. With regard to the financial and economic crisis, the churches asked the EU to work on the outcome of the crisis, while paying constant attention to the most vulnerable in the society. Churches underlined that the costs of the crisis cannot be primarily paid for by the middle and lower income sectors of the society and especially by the youth not finding decent employment. According to the church representatives, solidarity within states and among EU member states must be a key value to be implemented particularly in times of crisis. Concerning Horizon 2020, the research programme of the EU from 2014 to 2020, several churches consider it as an ethical and legal problem that the EU proposal does not exclude funding of research in human embryonic stem cells. In the field of asylum policy, the churches are calling on the Cypriot presidency to take into consideration the specific underlying factors for the waves of Syrian refugees on to EU territory. (IL/trans.fl)