By Chris Jones and Bruno Waterfield - 15th February 2006
Europe must remain united in its defence of freedom of expression, MEPs warned on Wednesday.
The European parliament in Strasbourg was debating the EU’s response to the violence following publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper.
European commission president José Manuel Barroso condemned the violence against EU missions in the Middle East, calling it the “enemy of dialogue”.
But he underlined that the EU’s commitment to freedom of expression was “not negotiable”. “But it must be used responsibly by individuals,” he said.
Mixed message?
But in the Middle East the EU has struck a more conditional defence of freedom of expression.
In Egypt on Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana appeared to lend some support to a UN blasphemy code.
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference is pushing for the UN to include religious offence under the remit of a new human rights body.
“We are working on some ideas. I cannot be very precise, but we are working on some ideas that maybe it is possible to get through,” he said.
Deutsche Welle reports that Solana’s spokeswoman confirmed that the EU is looking at protecting religion from offensive criticism.
“They want mechanisms to guarantee this is not repeated and we should be able to find it in UN conventions on human rights,” she said.
Dialogue
Most MEPs agreed that Europe must continue to build bridges through dialogue, and recognise that the majority of the Muslim world wants to co-exist peacefully.
“The violent reaction was not spontaneous, as it took place months after the cartoons were published,” said Hans-Gert Poettering, leader of the centre-right group in the parliament.
“It was organised by regimes that do not allow freedom of speech.”
But some MEPs expressed concerns that Europe itself was becoming divided over the issue.
“What does it say about European solidarity when one European company stops selling products by another simply to appease violent factions?,” asked Danish MEP Karin Riis-Jorgensen, speaking on behalf of the Liberal group.
Both she and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-leader of the Greens, condemned French company Carrefour for withdrawing Danish products from its shelves and taking out adverts in the Muslim press to advertise the fact.
Code of conduct
Riis-Jorgensen also warned EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini not to go too far towards appeasing the Islamic world by introducing a code of conduct for journalists.
“That is a step too far,” she said.
And there was also criticism of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen for refusing to speak to religious leaders.
“It is not for the Danish government to apologise for the publication of the cartoons,” said Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, a former Danish leader and president of the centre-left group of MEPs.
But he said that a meeting could have helped build bridges, and allow the Danish government to exercise its own “freedom of expression”.
Give peace a chance
Austria, which holds the rotating EU presidency, confirmed its commitment to dialogue with the Arab world.
“We have fought hard in Europe to win freedom from censorship,” said Hans Winkler from Austria’s foreign affairs ministry.
“We have the right to publish new and controversial ideas, but also to be criticised for them in turn.”
“But we need to be able to disagree with each other peacefully.”
He added that Finland, which takes over the EU presidency in July, had already committed to making cultural dialogue a centrepiece of its six-month tenure.
MEPs will vote on Thursday on a resolution condemning the violence, supporting Denmark and backing the freedom of expression.
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