Brussels, 15/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - Speaking to a group of MEPs on Thursday in Brussels, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, former member of the Dutch parliament who was born in Somalia and who has been threatened with death for criticising Islam, formally asked the European Union for protection. She said she had come to ask for a European fund to be set up to ensure the protection of persons whose only crime is that of saying what they believe, Ms Hirsi Ali said. She was invited by the European Parliament's Socialist Group to take part in a debate. The former parliamentarian had voluntarily left the Netherlands for the United States in 2006 and, last October, the Dutch government ceased to finance her round-the-clock protection outside its territory, estimated at a cost of €2 million annually. Ms Hirsi Ali said she felt the Dutch government had taken a bad decision, thanking France in passing for having raised the possibility of granting her French nationality. “Since October, I have been forced to spend all my time fund-raising to ensure my protection”, Ms Hirsi Ali explained. On the basis of several articles from the European Charter of Fundamental Rights adopted in early January, several MEPs are calling for a new Community instrument to be set up to finance the protection of persons threatened because of the opinions they have expressed. The EP Socialist Group has launched an initiative that has already received over one hundred signatures, including that of Parliament Speaker Hans-Gert Pöttering (EPP-ED, Germany). The project will receive the support of most MEPs by the end of March to become an official European Parliament resolution, addressed to the Commission and Council. If the 27 members of the EU do not respond positively to the request, the Parliament will have to bear the cost of funding protection itself within the framework of its budgetary prerogatives. French MEP Benoît Hamon (PES) also spoke of another avenue that could be taken, that of initiating a pilot action to protect European citizens like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who are attacked for what they say. Financing could come from a €50 million allocation to be made available each year by the European Parliament, in the same way as funds were released in 2004 to help the victims of terrorist action at Atocha station, in Madrid. (B.C.)