Brussels, 13/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - The EU countries should do more to protect fundamental rights, including those of national minorities, LGBT people and migrants, MEPs said in a resolution on Wednesday 12 December. They also expressed their concern - in this resolution that was much less consensual than it seemed - about restrictions in certain member states on reproductive health services, such as legal abortion, a press release states. In addition, the MEPs stated their support for gay marriage, leading the EPP Group to vote against the report by Monika Flasikova Benova (S&D, Slovakia). The resolution on the situation of fundamental rights in the EU in 2010 and 2011 was finally adopted by 308 votes to 229 with 48 abstentions. Yet before adopting this text of the civil liberties committee, the MEPs rejected an alternative resolution by the EPP Group. The alternative resolution was much more general, one source explains, and simply skated over fundamental rights without entering into detail. In short, it was careful not to take a position on homosexual marriage or the right to abortion - a position rejected by the other MEPs and one which Hélène Flautre (Greens/EFA, France) even described in a press release as “retrograde”.
The MEPs were thus finally able to give their opinion on two subjects. With regard to access to sexual and reproductive health services, they expressed their “concern about recent restrictions on access to sexual and reproductive health services in some member states, in particular safe and legal abortion, sexuality education and funding cuts to family planning” - a paragraph adopted by 415 votes to 169 with 38 abstentions.
With regard to the rights of LGBT people, the majority of MEPs considered that “LGBT people's fundamental rights are more likely to be safeguarded if they have access to legal institutions such as cohabitation, registered partnership or marriage” and the MEPs welcomed the fact that 16 member states are currently proposing these options, with the other countries being asked to envisage doing the same.
The resolution stressed the rights of migrants and illegal immigrants, and also stressed discrimination against national minorities - particularly the Roma. It also notes “the rise of political parties which are openly racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic”, with the MEPs calling on member states to prosecute all forms of violence and hatred against minority groups. (SP/transl.fl)