Brussels, 16/04/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 16 April, European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering strongly condemned the assault two days earlier on Proinsias De Rossa (PES, Ireland) by anti-Lisbon Treaty protesters. The former Irish minister was attacked during a meeting in Dublin. The Irish Labour Party, to which De Rossa belongs, is campaigning for a “yes” vote on the Lisbon Treaty in the referendum due to be held in Ireland on 12 June. “The knocking to the ground and assault of our European Parliament colleague Proinsias De Rossa is an attack on freedom of speech and the right and duty of elected parliamentarians to present their views in public,” said Pöttering in a press release. Visiting Dublin last week, he appealed to the Irish Senate for a “calm and reasoned” Lisbon Treaty referendum campaign. Both sides of the argument need to be heard, but such attacks were attacks “on the fundamental values of the European Union which are enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty”, Pöttering said. (L.C.)