Thinking of June

The plenary session of the European Parliament (12-15 January) tackled the usual wide range of issues: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the dispute between Russia and Ukraine about gas, the six months’ Czech Presidency, the “sustainable” use of pesticides, biometric passports, and the new EU regime for investments. The agenda of the session was dictated both by critical international policy decisions and the need to approve legislative measures of some urgency prior to the conclusion of the legislature.From discrimination to rights. At Strasbourg and in Brussels attention remains increasingly focused on the forthcoming institutional deadlines: namely the vote for the European Assembly next June, the renewal of the Commission, and the final rush for the ratification and entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. In the meantime the calendar of parliamentary business proceeds according to plan. The order for the day during this week’s session included the vote on the “Report on the situation of fundamental rights in the European Union 2004-2007”, after the text had been debated in the chamber in December. The document will fill a gap long pointed out at the EU level, regarding restrictions on fundamental rights and civil liberties within the EU-27. The curbs in question concern forms of discrimination in social and professional life, violence against children and women, and forms of exclusion to the detriment of the disabled and minorities, these latter sometimes justified – it is maintained – by the war on terror. Stopping racism and xenophobia. The document, articulated in over 160 points, was written by Italian MEP Giusto Catania (Unitary Left) and reached the floor of the European Parliament with some sixty amendments, many of them presented by the right-wing Europe of Nations group (EON). It underlines such problems as the various “expressions of racism and xenophobia” still present in the old continent, the continuing “forms of intolerance and anti-semitism”, the need for “greater protection for rom (gipsy) communities”, and efforts to curb violence against children and ensure the freedom of the press, which should be exercised “within the limits permitted by the law”, “co-exist with personal freedom, and be based on respect for the rights of others”. In the introduction to the document it is asserted that “the effective protection and promotion of fundamental rights” represents “the foundation of democracy in Europe” and the “premise for the consolidation of the European space of freedom, security and justice”. Aspects of ambiguity. The report – which presents various aspects of ambiguity – further points out that “the protection of fundamental rights implies actions at various levels: international, European, national, regional and local. It deplores the fact “that member states continue to exempt themselves from any EU control of their policies and practices in the field of human rights and try to limit the protection of such rights to a purely internal dimension”. Member states and EU institutions are urged, in a specific paragraph, to ensure that the rights of homosexuals be respected, for example by “guaranteeing that the right to free circulation of same-sex couples within the European Union be applied under the same conditions as those accorded to heterosexual couples”. The report, on which the political groups in Strasbourg were divided and also split internally, was finally approved by the EP with 401 votes in favour, 220 against and 67 abstentions. Various amendments were approved during the vote. One of them regards a passage in the document that affirms that steps should be taken to counter homophobia, as expressed also through discriminatory statements by “political, social and religious exponents”; these latter two categories were added by an amendment presented by the Dutch Liberal-Democrat MEP Sophia in’t Veld, which split the chamber in two: 367 in favour, 294 against and 25 abstentions. Towards the biological testament? Another amendment goes in the direction of support for the French initiative at the UNO for the universal depenalization of homosexuality. The report further requests the EU to proceed to a study on the situation of transsexual persons in member states, especially “as regards the risks of harassment and violence” they incur. It also points out the need to raise public awareness as regards the “right to reproductive and sexual health”: it asks member states to guarantee that women “may fully enjoy such rights” and – with another amendment passed with 427 in favour, 199 against and 42 abstentions – “to facilitate methods of contraception so as to prevent undesired pregnancies and illegal and risky abortions”. The part of the document on the biological testament was also approved: member countries are asked to proceed to legislation on the biological testament, ensuring “in this way the right to the dignity of the end of life”.