“We were on the same wavelength”, commented Rik Daems after the special meeting he held with Pope Francis on Monday morning. Received as President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, he speaks of a “real 45-minute conversation” held in the Pope’s mother tongue – Latin American Spanish – which Mr Daems learned in the 1980s while stationed in Costa Rica for the UN. Essentially, three themes were discussed during this exchange.
The environment, already mentioned by the Pope during his visit to Strasbourg 6 years ago, was the first of these subjects. “In my view, the right to a healthy environment is fully a human right”, said Mr Daems, who has made this issue one of the highlights of his term of office, which began in January 2020. “It is part of a new generation of rights that will have to be incorporated into existing instruments – for example, the European Convention on Human Rights – or put at the heart of new tools”.
Violence against women was the second topic discussed. “It has increased during lockdown and must be fought with everything we have, each with our tools and our angle of approach”.
Threats to European cohesion were also raised during this exchange of views. “Multilateralism must be preserved in the context of the rise of national egoism. We have looked at Europe from the point of view of unity in diversity and its fundamental values. Once again, the conversation went very well, even though the approach angles were different”. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)