13
Jul
2023
Watch
10th anniversary of the EU Guidelines on Freedom of Religion or Belief (debate)
Mr President, Madam Commissioner, dear colleagues, the general experience of the scientific reports show that we live in a time of unprecedented religious intolerance globally. Unfortunately, in 2021, as many as 40 countries of the world people have been killed, abducted for their faith. At the same time, since 2019, the Commission unfortunately hesitated for three years with the appointment of the EU Special Envoy for the promotion of the freedom of religion outside the EU. This undermined, clearly – this is my own experience – the EU’s international credibility. Dear colleagues, around 84% of the global population identifies with a different kind of religious group, according to the Pew Research Center. The basic human right of the freedom of religion is still not fully integrated into EU diplomacy. We’ll still need to set milestones in dialogue with the churches, religious communities and their organisations active in this field in the EU and the third countries. According to Article 17 of the EU Treaty, the EU institution conducts substantial and transparent dialogue with the religious communities, either. In reality – we know it very well, however – it is not structured dialogue as such prior to any substantive EU decision-making. It is not a legal framework that is missing. Rather, the EU leadership refuses knowledge of the decisive impact of religion in individual society. Without this, decision-makers are unable to understand the importance of religious freedom. A visible result, today, is that we hold this debate in the very end of the plenary session, on Thursday afternoon. We need the presence of the colleagues, of course. Thanks for everybody who is present. I think it is really a simple shame. Let me recall the free expression of religion is not a matter of religion, but it is a human right. In fact, it is even deeper – it is one of the anthropological question.