Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-01-20-Speech-3-061"
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"en.20100120.5.3-061"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as Chair of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs for this Parliament, I am pleased that the Spanish Presidency attaches importance to the fulfilment of the structural reforms provided for by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, in particular, with regard to the European External Action Service, to the Citizens’ Initiative, and to the European Union’s adherence to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights, for which my committee has already appointed a rapporteur, the Spaniard, Mr Jáuregui Atondo, whom you already know.
However, in an interview published in the Spanish newspaper
last Sunday, you expressed the wish, Mr Zapatero, that the law on religious freedom might result in Spain taking steps towards normalisation within all its public institutions.
Thus, I would like, in this respect, to suggest that we reflect very briefly on the fact that Europe’s structures are a means of achieving an objective, and the European Union’s objective is confirmed in Article 2 of the Treaty of Lisbon: the promotion of dignity, equality, freedom and solidarity. I must therefore voice some concern about the direction in which this debate on values is heading.
Cultural unity comes before economic unity. Europe’s spirit is stronger than the public – excuse me, judicial – structure. Europe’s spirit is rooted in the instinct for truth and beauty belonging to ancient Greece, in the cult of justice belonging to Rome, and on the basis of this extraordinarily great heritage it is Christianity that has added the value of human beings, always as equals from conception to natural death.
Today, it is in the name of the Cross of Christ that we ask to go to Haiti, to be present in Haiti, because all human beings, and the poorest in particular, are at the heart of this.
And so I ask you: what does ‘normalisation’ mean with regard to religious freedom? Does it mean perhaps preventing all citizens from publicly expressing their religion? Does it mean forgetting the roots, including the Christian roots, of our countries?"@en1
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