Three big questions

The summer issue of Europe Infos focuses on economic and financial questions, with articles on energy and sustainable development, EU policies on the exploitation of natural resources in conflict areas, and with contributions on unemployment, Egypt and religious freedom, of which follows a summarization. The editorial on "Finance and Economics as Political Issues" is by Frank Turner (click here).Unemployment, a moral issue. As many as 25.5 million Europeans are without a job. Among them, approximately 6 million are people under 25 years old, although figures differ at national level, states Jesuit Fr José Ignacio García. "The divergences show that in Europe an integration is far from achieved, and that the economies of the member States are still divergent". In the midst of this crisis "the words of Pope Francis have powerfully resonated as he re- calls the priority of labour over other elements of economic activity". In fact, "the present measures of austerity are devastating for millions of citizens. The demands for huge budget cuts, the credit crunch and the strength of the currency that limits exports, all these impose an enormous burden that is dividing Europe into two: the Europe that creates jobs and the Europe that loses them". Moreover, "we are witnessing profound changes in our economic model, and human labour is one of the most vulnerable issues". "The solution is not easy, and the temptation is to look for short term palliatives instead to look for long term changes that can attract the necessary broad consensus".Religious freedom: new guidelines. On June 24 the EU Guidelines on religious freedom were adopted "as a result of the awareness of the increasing importance of the religious factor in international relations and the strategic place of religious freedom in broader freedoms", wrote José Luis Bazán (COMCE Secretariat). He explained: "EU Guidelines aim to provide tools to be used in the EU’s relations with third-coun- tries, though not within the EU itself. Their content results from contradictory visions of Member States concerning the place of religious freedom in the public sphere. As he EU Guidelines were compiled to protect religious freedom outside of Europe, the benchmark for assessing the quality of religious freedom is "international common standards, particularly Article 18 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights". This "extra-European" perspective has brought about limits in the guidelines, for example, "A more balanced approach to ‘blasphemy laws’ would have been desirable, as also but also the reinforcing of the collective and institutional dimension of religious freedom", Similarly, "the full protection of the right of parents to educate their children according to their religious convictions, without undue interference by state and non-state actors" has been minimised. For Bazán the Guidelines "contain very positive aspects, such as the recognition of legal personality of religious communities, but the leave ahead the he challenge to protect and promote all dimensions of religious freedom as international law foresees.Should we be reassessing aid to Egypt? A recent EU report on aid to Egypt shows that id of €1 billion has been granted to the country "aimed at promoting governance and other areas affecting civil society, but it has not led to the expected results". This is mainly put down to two causes: "The lack of transparency in how the Egyptian authorities made use of these funds and the allocation of aid in the absence of any progress in this field". According to Eva Saenz-Diez, physician, doctor and lecturer on the Arab world, "the ‘allied countries’ that were officially clamouring for more democracy and freedom might have done it all differently if their ultimate goal had indeed been democracy. But it seems that their desired goal turned out to be, once again, the stability of Egypt at all costs. In fact, the fate of religious minorities has increasingly deteriorated. Tension between different religious communities has been stirred up and measures that are repressive and downplaying of free speech have been officially adopted". Prof. Saenz-Diaz denounces: "it would seem that all the measures and decisions taken by the government had reassured and lulled all the chancelleries in the West in their path towards a self-styled "stability" in the short and medium terms". "Aid grants of any sort should be disbursed with strings attached and A stricter process of monitoring should definitely be put in place", the expert concluded.