Brussels, 20/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - The idea of establishing an “Anti-Death Penalty Day” will be discussed at the European Parliament in plenary on Wednesday 26 September, during the afternoon. This debate was organised following the Polish government's opposition early in the week against creating such a day on 10 October (EUROPE 9504). MEPs, who will not fail to discuss Warsaw's attitude, are also expected to study how such an anti-death penalty day can be created with or without Polish acceptance. Is the Council still able to come to some sort of initiative? If the Council backs down, could the Parliament of its own accord foresee the creation of such a day? In the meantime, the Greens - one of the only groups that expressed views on this - openly criticise the decision of the Portuguese EU presidency to abandon the idea of a European day against the death penalty. “The shameful back-down by the Portuguese presidency on holding an anti-death penalty day is nothing short of a scandal”, deplored Monica Frassoni (Italy) and Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Germany), both Green members, in a press release on Wednesday 19 September. By giving in to the “nonsensical arguments of the Polish government”, the EU is sending the “wrong message abut its commitment to tackling this important issue”, they added. This hitch caused by Poland is all the more troublesome as, in parallel, at the initiative of Italy, the EU27 had planned to present a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly next week calling for a universal moratorium against the death penalty. “The European Parliament should now take the initiative and relaunch attempts to create an EU-wide anti-death penalty day”, the two co-presidents of the Greens Group say. (bc)